Samoan Healers to Share AIDS Drug Profits

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Samoan Healers to Share AIDS Drug Profits

USA Today (12.17.01) - Monday, December 17, 2001

The families of two Samoan women who passed on knowledge of a tree's healing powers will share in profits from any AIDS drug developed from the rain forest plant. The medicine women used the mamala tree to treat hepatitis. The plant's bark and wood contain prostratin, which inhibits HIV infection, according to an abstract in Blood, the journal of the American Hematology Society. In an agreement announced last week, the non-profit AIDS ReSearch Alliance promised to give the government of Samoa and the healers 20 percent of any commercial revenue it gets from the experimental compound. Scientists hope to begin the first clinical trials on humans within a year. The drug triggers dormant HIV cells so other AIDS drugs can attack them, said Irl Barefield, executive director of the AIDS ReSearch Alliance, which is licensed by the National Cancer Institute to research the drug. Besides exposing HIV for destruction, the drug seems to prevent the virus from entering healthy cells. If successful, the drug could earn millions of dollars a year for the Samoans, Barefield said. The National Institutes of Health would get 5 percent of any profits. All other profits would go towards AIDS research, he said.

"Company to Begin Selling Generic Anti-AIDS Drugs" Associated Press (12.16.01)

A Jamaican food company announced that it would begin selling generic AIDS-fighting drugs at a reduced rate in Jamaica, lowering the price by as much as 80 percent. "Many patients no longer have to fill only half their prescriptions because they cannot afford it," said Lascelles Chin, chair of Lasco Group food distributor. The Ministry of Health said that there are other forms of generic drugs also available to people with HIV and AIDS. More than 12,000 people are believed to have the disease in Jamaica, a nation of 2.6 million.
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