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Posted on 3-2-2004
Biotechnology
Threatens The Last Wilderness
By Steve Connor, NZ Herald,
A biotechnology "gold-rush" is threatening an unregulated harvest of
"extremophiles" - bacteria, fungi and algae - that thrive in Antarctica,
says the United Nations.
It is warning of the dangers posed by biotechnology companies scrambling
to turn microscopic lifeforms into the raw material for a billion-dollar
industry making everything from detergents to cancer treatments. A UN
study warns that if unchecked, the bio-prospectors' activities could turn
into an unregulated free-for-all, undermining the potential human benefits
of Antarctica's unique flora and fauna.
Researchers from the Institute of Advanced Studies in Tokyo found that
there were vigorous attempts to control intellectual property rights on
inventions resulting from Antarctic exploration. They found 62 patents in
the European Patent Office that relied to some extent on Antarctic
wildlife, and a further 300 references and 92 applications in the US
Patent Office referring to the Antarctic. Recent examples include a
Spanish patent for a protein extracted from an Antarctic bacteria that is
allegedly able to treat damaged hair, skin and nails as well as having a
vital wound-healing property.
Another skin treatment derived from a green alga has been patented in
Germany, and the Russian Patent Office has registered a product with
anti-cancer properties that was extracted from the Antarctic black yeast.
It is not just Antarctic microbes that have generated new products.
Scientists have isolated anti-freeze proteins from the great Antarctic cod
that prevent the fish's blood from freezing. The protein could be used
commercially for anything from icecream making to organ transplants.
But the unfettered search for life at the ends of the Earth threatens to
undermine the international rules on intellectual property rights, and
could pose a fundamental threat to the fragile environment of the
Antarctic, says Hamid Zakri, an academic with the United Nations
University. "Biological prospecting for extremophiles is already occurring
and is certain to accelerate in Antarctica and the southern oceans," said
Dr Zakri, who is the director of the institute that carried out the study.
Sam Johnston, one of the authors of the UN report, said part of the
problem was that nobody owned the genetic resources of the Antarctic,
which meant that the more ethical companies felt they could not assert
their intellectual property rights with Government agencies. "The concern
we have is that there's an issue of equity - the benefits of these
resources are not being distributed fairly. "Unlike the open sea, which is
seen as international territory, the Antarctic is neither international
territory nor is it clearly within national jurisdiction. "What needs to
be done is that the Governments who are active in Antarctica need to
develop a protocol that assesses the genetic resources and the costs of
exploiting them." Although the Antarctic Treaty System was designed to
protect and preserve the environment, it did not directly regulate
bio-prospecting activities, said Dr Johnston.
The UN report says that until now bio-prospecting has usually been done by
consortia of private and public bodies, such as universities and
Government research institutes. This has made it difficult to draw a clear
line between scientific research and commercial activities, although it is
clear that a lot of the recent activity has led to commercial
applications, the report says.
Big money is a motive for much of the search for new microbes with unusual
properties. The UN estimates that the combined market for products derived
from genetic resources is worth up to $200 billion in the cosmetics and
drug industries. "Sixty-two per cent of cancer drugs approved by the US
Food and Drug Administration are of natural origin or modelled on natural
products," the report says. "A consequence of this trend is that naturally
occurring genetic resources and biochemical processes will most likely
receive greater attention from the private sector."
A natural target for biotechnology companies are extremophiles living at
the edges of the habitable environment because they have adapted through
millions of years of evolution to life at freezing temperatures, intense
aridity, acidity or high salt concentrations.
The report says "the application of extremophiles in industrial processes
ranges from their use in liposomes [fatty particles] for drug delivery and
cosmetics, waste treatment, molecular biology to the food industry".
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