World-first laws to sink bio-pirates
Queensland is the first tropical area in the world to legislate against biopiracy, the unauthorised and uncompensated taking of biological resources.
Rainforests, like those in Far North Queensland, have become hot property as they are thought to contain thousands of as yet undiscovered chemicals and medicines.
As companies the world over scramble to make the next big discovery, biopiracy has become a contentious issue and the subject of a United Nations Convention.
The Queensland Government’s Biodiversity Act 2004 was the first legislation in the world to meet the recommendations and guidelines set out by the UN, and provides a legal framework for companies investigating biodiversity opportunities.
EcoBiotics Limited, at Yungaburra on Far North Queensland’s Atherton Tableland, has received the first permit to operate under this new legislation.
The company specialises in the discovery and early development of new pharmaceuticals from Queensland’s tropical rainforests and has a focus on four main areas – cancer, inflammation, infectious diseases and parasite control.
Chief Scientific Officer of EcoBiotics Limited Dr Paul Reddell said the new legislation provided legal security for companies like his to investigate more chemical compounds from rainforest plants, and eventually create more medicines.
“This new legislation allows us to search through rainforest on public land, take small samples in a highly sustainable way and seek new chemical compounds,” Dr Reddell said.
“More than 85 per cent of the material we collect contains compounds with initial activity against our therapeutic targets and we then investigate these compounds further and take the most promising into preclinical trials here in Queensland,” he said.
“When these trials confirm the potential of the individual compounds as new medicines, we collaborate with large international pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to develop these to market,” he said.
Chief Executive Officer of EcoBiotics Victoria Gordon said the company’s research was already yielding results.
“Trials are now underway of a human anti-cancer drug, a treatment for cancer in horses, an arthritis treatment and a range of antibiotics,” Dr Gordon said.
Dr Gordon said Queensland had a unique opportunity to capitalise on our biodiversity and our expertise in preclinical drug development to create a thriving biotechnology industry.
“With more flowering tree species in two hectares of the Daintree than in all of temperate North America, Queensland’s biodiversity is one of our biotechnology industry’s greatest strengths,” she said.
Website: http://www.ecobiotics.com.au
Last reviewed 24 July 2007
