EU Patent Ruling on German Drug Highlights Biopiracy Debate
Deutsche welle – European authorities have withdrawn a patent granted to a German firm on an anti-bronchitis drug derived from a South African medicinal plant. Activists say it marks a success in the fight against biopiracy. Spokesman for the European Patent Office in Munich said this week that the patent granted in 2007 to German pharmaceutical company Schwabe to develop the drug did not amount to “a discovery.” The spokesman said the techniques used by the company to extract ingredients from the roots of the Pelargonium sidoides plant native to South Africa to develop a product called umckaloabo were “sufficiently known in advance.” Read Article
