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Brazil sees profit in frog slime
Fernando Katukina is chief of an indigenous tribe that lives largely without running water, electricity or links to the world outside this remote corner of the western Amazon.
But Katukina says he possesses a treasure that could be at the cutting edge of biotechnology. If a plan initiated by the chief is successful, his tribe's fortunes will be transformed by an asset that he and the Brazilian government say holds great promise for the global pharmaceutical industry: the slime from a poisonous tree frog.
Tribal shamans have used the slime as an ancestral remedy to treat illness, pain, even laziness. The crucial ingredients are compounds with anesthetic, tranquilizing and other medicinal properties.
Scientists say the promise lies in isolating peptides from the frog's slime and then reproducing them for medicines to treat hypertension, stroke, and other illnesses.
Already, Katukina has the backing of Brazil's government, which sees the frog slime as a steppingstone to significant advances in its own research and development in pharmaceuticals. In particular, the scientific challenge of the frog, known locally as the kambô, will deepen Brazil's expertise in pharmacogenomics - the combined use of genetics and pharmacology - and it takes advantage of the traditional knowledge of indigenous people.
"Traditional knowledge can help modern medicine and generate significant economic benefits, too," said Bruno Filizola, technical coordinator of the project and a biologist at the Environment Ministry in Brasília.
The indigenous dimension is also crucial because Brazil, like other developing nations, is trying to fight back against what it perceives as biopiracy, the theft of biological resources from the country's native habitats for commercial use. Though the project is still in early stages, about 20 scientists are seeking start-up financing of close to $1 million from more than a dozen universities, state governments, and federal agencies.
There is also a great deal more than naïve hope at stake here.
Brazilian scientists have already taught the country's farmers, who today are among the world's top exporters, to manipulate soils and alter crops once unsuited for the country's climate. Now many researchers believe science can turn Brazilian forests into working, productive laboratories.
"Brazil has a large, growing and capable community of scientists keen to develop their own research and products," said Joshua Rosenthal, deputy director of a division for international training and research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Brazilian researchers have not forgotten the case of the jararaca, the Amazonian viper. Pharmaceutical company Squibb used the snake's venom to develop captopril, a blood pressure medicine it began selling in 1975. Though available generically since 1996, the medicine at its commercial peak was the largest selling product for the company, now part of Bristol-Myers Squibb, grossing $1.6 billion in 1991.
"Because of past errors," reads a document from the Brazilian Environment Ministry, "captopril is not Brazilian."
Though home to the world's largest rainforest and one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, Brazil traditionally has been slow to develop its so-called genetic patrimony: the plants and animals within its territory and the potential they offer for profit.