Abstract
The global medicine market is about 1.1 trillion US dollars. About 35 percent of medicines have originated from natural products. Brazil presents the largest biodiversity in the world, with more than 50,000 species of higher plants. However, few innovative products have been developed in Brazil from active constituents derived from the Brazilian biodiversity. Scientific evidences on plants and venoms have been internationally published by Brazilian scientists over the last 4 decades; but few examples of innovative products are commercially available. Few examples include the anti-hypertensive drug captopril first identified in the venom of the Brazilian viper Bothrops jararaca by Professor Sergio Ferreira; and some phytotherapeutic agents such as Acheflan®, Syntocalmy® and Melagrião® produced by standardized plant extracts with scientific proof of safety, efficacy and quality. Still, only Acheflan® and Melagrião® are obtained from native Brazilian plants. Several issues contribute to the lack of innovative products from the Brazilian biodiversity, but in my opinion, the most challenging ones are i) the lack of specific regulations to allow researchers and companies to access biodiversity for the purposes of scientific and technological innovation; and ii) the absence of a long-term government program to support research and innovation in this field.
Highlights
Since ancient times, natural products mainly plants, minerals, animals etc. have been widely used to treat many diseases
About 35 percent of these medicines originated directly or indirectly from natural products including: plants (25%), microorganisms (13%) and animals: natural-derived products constitute an extremely important resource for global pharmaceutical companies working on the development of new medicines
The most significant is the lack of a specific law that allows researchers and companies access to genetic knowledge for the purposes of scientific and for technological innovation
Summary
Natural products mainly plants, minerals, animals etc. have been widely used to treat many diseases. Natural products mainly plants, minerals, animals etc. Have been widely used to treat many diseases. There are registers showing medicinal uses of such substances by people from thousands of years before Christ. Medicinal plants and microorganisms were the major source of medicines over many centuries. We have many examples of plant-derived extracts and/or compounds isolated from plants that have been widely used in the treatment of many significant diseases. To name just two examples, poppy (Papaver somnniferum) and marijuana (Cannabis sativa) have been used for as long as 4,000 years. In 1806 Friedrich Serturner isolated the alkaloid morphine from poppy: an event that prompted a continuing search for other plantderived medicines. BIODIVERSITY AS SOURCE OF INNOVATOR PRODUCT same plant. Amongst the many other important active principles isolated from medicinal plants are atropine (muscarinic antagonist), isolated from Atropa belladonna by Mein in 1831; caffeine, obtained by Runge in 1820 from Coffea arabica; digoxin (digitalis), isolated by Claude-Adolphe Nativelle in 1869 from Digitalis lanata and curare (muscle relaxant), isolated by Winstersteiner and Dutcher in 1943 from the South American plant Chondrodendron tomentosum
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