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History of Hoodia
Gordonii
As we discussed in the Overview of
Hoodia, the Bushmen (or the San) have used Hoodia plants as a natural
appetite suppressant for thousands of years. But how did the secret of the
San get out? It turns out 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 ate. Part of
the study was 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 lose weight!
They found when they fed hoodia to animals, the animals lost weight. By
1997, the CSIR isolated the bioactive compound in Hoodia responsible for
appetite suppression and obtained a patent. The patent was licensed to
Phytopharm and they named the molecule - P57 (because it was the 57th
product they spent money 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 tribe which
discovered the Hoodia Gordonii plant 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 stood
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 to apply strong legal , moral and political pressure on both the CSIR
and Phytopharm. Chennells pointed out to anyone who would listen that the
taking of traditional knowledge without compensation was "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 legally
harvests hoodia gordonii from the Kalahari desert must pay royalties back to
the Bushmen. Not only is this fair and just, it also provides an excellent
way to check if the hoodia you buy is legitimate. If 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 originally paid
Phytopharm for the rights to market a P57 based diet pill. After a few year
of unsuccessful attempts to make P57 synthetically, Pfizer pulled out of the
deal. If a large amount of P57 could not be created inexpensively in the
lab, Pfizer was not interested.
While Phytopharm was discouraged by the Pfizer decision, they knew that
Hoodia Gordonii was too powerful an appetite suppressant to give up trying
to bring it to the market. In December 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 whole Hoodia Gordonii plant?This is an
interesting question that we are sure will be decided in court one day. Here
is our take on the situation - Phytopharm clearly owns the patent on the P57
molecule. 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 can not patent a plant, but you can
patent the use of plants and a process to extract plants. Here is an exact
quote from Richard Dixey, CEO of Phytopharm when he appeared on 60 minutes?
"The patent is on the application 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 no one else can use hoodia for weight loss? "As a weight-management
product without infringing the patent, that's correct," says Dixey.
The way we read this (and again 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 loss. This is why many 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.
For more information visit:
Hoodia Diet Reviews
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