The Problem with Patents: Traditional Knowledge and International IP Law (World IN Review) (Intellectual Property‪)‬

With attractive pinkish-white flowers and lush green foliage, the Madagascar rosy periwinkle appears at first to be an innocuous, decorative plant. Belying its appearance, the plant has incredibly potent qualities. In the early 1950s, the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Company began conducting research on the periwinkle, until then grown largely by poverty-stricken indigenous communities. Inspired by its use traditional medicine, researchers at Eli Lilly eventually isolated two extracts--vinblastine and vincristine. Both extracts have become powerful drugs, one to treat childhood leukemia, and the other to treat Hodgkins' Disease. Together, these drugs generate over US$200 million in revenue for Eli Lilly each year, no part of which is seen or even heard of by the people of Madagascar. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]