[SPICY IP] The Haitian Plight and Traditional Knowledge: A Promise Unfulfilled?

[Shamnad Basheer]

As we watch with horror at the plight of many in Haiti, the last thing on our minds is the nexus between traditional knowledge and the sad events that unfolded in the wake of a devastating earthquake almost a month back.

According to this piece in the Huffington Post, there is indeed a significant nexus here. Apparently, the traditional medicinal wisdom of the Shamanic healers from the Amazonian forests was leveraged to create a drug, Crofelemer whose properties could be very effective for tackling dehydration--a rampant problem in Haiti (apparently only 47% of Haitians have accecss to clean drinking water) and one that was sharply exacerbated by the recent quake.

The article notes:

"A potential tool in the armament against the devastation of dehydration is crofelemer, a pharmaceutical product derived from the knowledge of shamans, or healers, in the South American rain forests.

The existing go-to formula, Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS), does indeed replenish depleted bodies and save lives, and should always be given to children and patients with severe disease in the case of dehydration. ORS does not slow or stop water loss. A complementary approach, crofelemer, according to data presented at scientific conferences, decreases fluid loss, and shortens the duration of diarrhea in both the mildest and most severe of cases, including cholera and chronic diarrhea in immuno-compromised patients."

Naturally, this drug would have been a boon to many Haitians suffering from a variety of ailments that trigger dehydration such as diarrhoea. However, this was not to be.

Apparently, owing to a number of financial bottlenecks involving the Gates Foundation and the organisation through which the funds had to be routed, the Institute of One World Health (iOWH), this drug is yet to make it to the market.

Important caveat: the piece is of written by Lisa Conte, the founder of Napo Pharmaceuticals, the company that created this drug in the first place. She ends her piece with:

"With great gifts comes great responsibility. No doubt, the Gates Foundation is a profound gift to global health, accounting for 80 percent of NGO funding these days. A Gates grantee recently told me that when, due to the recession, the foundation didn't increase its grant funding this past year, the effects were felt thunderously by the NGO community. In many arenas of global health, the foundation is the agenda.

The crisis in Haiti and the helplessness we all feel have moved me to write to the Gates Foundation again, yet perhaps this time in a way in which the message won't get submerged by those with personal agendas to protect at all costs, the most precious of which are the lives of children in places with little resources. Dear Mr. Gates, I hope you get this message."

Interestingly, for those of us interested in the link between TK and modern pharma, Conte's earlier article at the Huffington Post states thus:

"The drug discovery process at Napo is based on the knowledge of shamans -- traditional healers in the rain forest -- to identify plants, and ultimately compounds, that are more likely to be safe and effective in humans because they have been used in medicinal settings for thousands of years.

--
Posted By Shamnad Basheer to SPICY IP at 2/04/2010 10:55:00 PM