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AFTER a
corporation swept the rights to sell pain-relieving
drugs from their breakthrough discovery, Filipino
scientists are scampering to secure patents from
lifesaving toxins in marine cone snails.
“Yes,
Filipinos discovered the toxin, but others gained
financially,” scientist Elsie C. Jimenez told
participants of the Fourth Philippine Biotechnology
Summit on Friday.
Jimenez,
who worked for a decade with Filipino scientists
Baldomero M. Olivera of the University of Utah and
Lourdes J. Cruz of the University of the
Philippines,
related how American firm Elan Corp. gained financially
from a toxin extracted from marine cone snails, or Conus
species.
Jimenez
emphasized there is a huge potential for the country to
develop its own world-class marine drugs because it has
a high biodiversity of Conus species.
“Conservative estimates point to about a hundred
different peptides are produced in the venom of each of
the more than 700 Conus species we have,” Jimenez said.
A
peptide is any compound consisting of two or more amino
acids, the building blocks of proteins. It is helpful in
cancer research.
The
venom of a cone snail contains about a hundred different
nerve toxins that could help scientist develop drugs.
Jimenez
claimed it was Olivera who helped purify the toxin
called M-7A, which is now being sold by
Ireland-headquartered Elan under the brand name Prialt,
which refers to the medicine name of ziconotide.
Ziconotide is a nonlocal anesthetic used for severe
chronic pain, according to Jimenez.
“It
blocks calcium channels in the primary pain nerves of
the spinal cord—where it is directly pumped
into—preventing certain pain signals from reaching the
brain,” she explained.
Elan’s
revenue for 2005, when it first launched the medicine to
the US market, hit $6.3 million, according to Jimenez.
A
ziconotide, she said, is a thousand times more potent
than morphine and alleviates pain for which other
analgesics may be inadequate.
A
ziconotide therapy, mostly for those suffering from
severe chronic pain, costs $4,200 that year. For pumping
the drug directly to the spinal cord, the cost was
pegged at $20,000.
Likewise, Jimenez said for selling the rights in 2006 to
Eisai Co. Ltd. to sell the drug in Europe, Elan got $100
million.
To
reclaim their stakes in their discoveries, Jimenez said
they hastened the filing of patents in the
United States
for the four scientific discoveries and inventions of
the Filipino-led team. |
