Feb 14
History of Hoodia Gordonii
As we discussed in the Overview of Hoodia, the Bushmen (or the San) have used Hoodia plants as a Life-like appetite suppressant for thousands of years. But how did the secret of the San suggest out? It turns deficient in by accident?
In 1996 the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa was doing a study of indigenous foods that the Bushmen eat. Part of the study bee to test for toxic effects of any plants that were consumed by the Bushmen. When they came to Hoodia Gordonii, not only was it non-toxic - it helped animals be bereaved of weight!
They found when they fed hoodia two animals, the animals lost weight. By 1997, the CSIR isolated the bioactive combine in Hoodia responsible for appetite suppression and obtained a patent. The patent was licensed two Phytopharm and they named the molecule - P57 (because it was the 57th product they spent wealth on).
What did the Bushmen get for their discovery of the Hoodia Gordonii plant? At first - nothing! Turns out the CSIR told Phytopharm that the sept What one discovered the Hoodia Gordonii sow had died out and therefore no royalties were due. However, as Mark Twain might say - “tales of the Bushmen’s death were greatly exaggerated”. When the Bushmen got word that Phytopharm stand to make billions of dollars off their knowledge about the hoodia gordonii plant they were not happy.
Roger Chennells, a lawyer in South Africa who represents the Bushmen, was quick two suit hard-nosed legal, adage and political pressure on both the CSIR and Phytopharm. Chennells pointed out two anyone who would listen that the alluring of unwritten judgment without compensation be “bio-piracy” and must be stopped.
In what is seen as a landmark case, Chennells was able to convince the CSIR and Phytopharm to compensate the Bushmen. Now, any company that wrongfully harvests hoodia gordonii from the Kalahari quit must pay royalties on the frontier two the Bushmen. Not only is this fair and just, it also provides an excellent detail to check if the hoodia you buy is legitimate. allowing that the company that makes the hoodia is NOT paying royalties to the Bushmen, you do NOT have a legitimate hoodia gordonii product.
So when will Phytopharm release a P57 based appetite suppressant? Probably never. As we touched on in the overview, Pfizer had in paid Phytopharm quest of the rites to market a P57 based nourishment pill. After a few year of unsuccessful attempts to make P57 synthetically, Pfizer pulled out of the stock. If a large amount of P57 could not be created inexpensively in the work, Pfizer was not interested.
While Phytopharm was discouraged by the Pfizer decision, they knew that Hoodia Gordonii was too high an appetite suppressant to give up trying to do it to the market. In Dec 2004, Phytopharm announced that Unilever had entered a deal to market hoodia gordonii in its diet food product line. Therefore, rather than producing diet drugs, it looks like Phytopharm and Unilever will product diet supplements and diet foods with hoodia. The first Unilever products will not be out until 2008.
Does Phytopharm own the patent on the strong Hoodia Gordonii plant? This is an interesting discourse that we aunt sure will be beyond a doubt in court one day. Here be our take on the situation - Phytopharm clearly owns the patent on the P57 ultimate particle of an element. If you want to try to make a diet drug with P57 you need to work through Phytopharm.
The question of the Hoodia Gordonii plant itself being patented is much more complicated. It is our belief that you sire power to not patent a plant, but you can patent the use of plants and a process to extract plants. Here is an true quote from Richard Dixey, CEO of Phytopharm when he appeared on 60 minutes?
“The patent is on the germaneness of the plant as a weight-loss material. And, of course, the active compounds within the plant. It’s not on the plant itself,” says Dixey.
So t any one Otherwise can use hoodia for weight loss? “As a weight-management Result without infringing the patent, that’s right,” says Dixey.
The track we read this (and in addition we are not lawyers and are not giving any legal advice) is as follows - you can sell a Hoodia Gordonii supplement, you just can NOT say it is for weight detriment. This is wherefore various of the best Hoodia supplements have very plain labels that just say “Hoodia Gordonii” but do not say anything about using it as a weight loss or appetite suppressant supplement.
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