THEY have faced extinction and poverty for hundreds of years, but now the
San Bushmen of Southern Africa stand to make millions of pounds from a
so-called miracle slimming pill being developed by Western drug companies.
Last June an Observer, investigation exposed how British and United States
drug firms aimed to make a fortune from an appetite-suppressing ingredient
of the hoodia plant, which grows wild in Africa’s Kalahari desert. It has
been used for thousands of years by the San to stave off hunger and thirst
on long hunting trips.
The drug companies, including Pfizer, the US pharmaceutical giant
responsible for Viagra, hope to turn the hoodia ingredient – dubbed P57 –
into an international diet pill. Scientists believe that this natural
product will have no side effects.
Roger Chennells, a lawyer who in 1999 helped the San win back 40 000ha of
their ancestral land in South Africa, decided to challenge the drug firms
and the South African research institute that originally took out the hoodia
patent in 1996.
Now he has helped the San win a remarkable victory. Last month a landmark
benefit-sharing agreement was reached in South Africa that will see the San
receive a share of any future royalties.
With the worldwide market in slimming aids and anti-obesity products worth
more than £163,6-billion, millions of pounds could flow to the Kalahari when
the pill hits the market.
Although the details of the agreement have to be hammered out, the San are
likely to be involved in farming and cultivating hoodia and to be offered
scholarships to study so that their ancient botanical knowledge may lead to
other commercial products.
Petrus Vaalbooi, chairman of the San council, said: ”We see this as an
opportunity to engage with a partner in a way that will achieve benefits
that will permeate to the very poorest people within our communities.”
The drug successfully passed the third phase of its clinical tests last
December but is still four years away from coming to the market.
Alex Wijeratna, a campaigner from development agency Action Aid, which had
taken up the San cause, said: ”It’s a lesson to corporations that they can’t
come in and patent traditional knowledge on plants from local communities
and get away with it.”