Drug giants dismiss WHO patents pool

UTTARAKHAND HAS PUT TOGETHER AN EXTRAORDINARY ENDEMIC VEGETATION IN THE LAST THREE YEARS

IT’S BEEN called nonsense and dangerous. There was also the suggestion that it was a non-issue and immaterial to the discussion. As the World Health Organization (WHO) sought to garner support for an initiative to share the knowhow for treatments and vaccines for Covid-19, the biggest lobby group of pharmaceutical multinationals made its position clear: nothing doing. It was not entirely unexpected. Yet the manner and timing of Big Pharma’s rejection of a patents pool to make the technology accessible to all was blunt to the point of being brutal.

A day before WHO was to launch the Covid-19 Technology Access Pool, or C-Tap, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) held an online media briefing on progress related to Covid-19 vaccines with chief executives from four of its top member-companies, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca participating. It is clear that despite the hype, deflections and semi-truths, the world is not all that close to developing a vaccine against the new coronavirus SARSCOV2 although billions of dollars are being thrown into the hunt. Reports in recent weeks have highlighted the problems that the frontrunners in the vaccine race such as Oxford University and Moderna are encountering.

As Covid-19 infections and fatalities spike, it would make sense for governments and the pharma industry to respond positively to the WHO call for “open and collaborative approaches in pre-competitive drug discovery” to stop the spread of the disease. But companies have other priorities like protecting bottom lines and pushing up shareholder value than equitable access on their mind. That’s why we heard some rather startling statements at the IFMPA briefing. Pascal Soriot, CEO of Astra Zeneca, claimed he was unaware of the WHO patent pool, bizarre as it sounded. But pressed on the issue, he said IP was fundamental for drug companies; if you don’t protect it there’s no incentive for anyone to innovate. The British firm has just received more than $1 billion from the US for development, production and delivery of the vaccine that it has licensed from Oxford University. So which company would get first rights to the vaccine, the UK or the US? Everyone, of course!

The sharpest rejection of C-Tap came from Albert Bourla, Pfizer chief executive. He thinks “it is nonsense and at this point of time also dangerous”. Why? Because the risks the companies are taking involve billions of dollars and the chances of developing something are still not very good. In other words, Big Pharma is in a tough spot and all this talk of freely sharing IP and data is misplaced. Besides, as GSK’s boss Emma Walmsley contends there isn’t all that much evidence that IP is a barrier to access. Just look at the great work GAVI, the global vaccine alliance is doing through a public-private partnership. There was much praise for Bill Gates and his charitable foundation which is doing so much to widen access to vaccines by supporting GAVI and other initiatives like CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations). The Gates Foundation does play a significant role. It’s an investor in two of these companies to which it also makes huge donations, reveals the venerable New York magazine

Charity and business make for a good partnership.

The pharma industry is unlikely to back the initiative for pooling intellectual property to fight the pandemic

We may have read about human migrations due to but a new book analyses migrations of plants, animals and humans over centuries, tracing ancient and life-saving responses to environmental changes as a biological imperative, as necessary as breathing. Migration breathes new life in societal ecosystems, says the book. The Next Great Migration unearths how climate change triggered the first human migration out of Africa catapulting us into the highest reaches of the Himalayan mountains. Migration is not a source of fear, but of hope, says the book.

SOME BEAUTIFUL photographs of a tulip garden in Uttarakhand’s Munsiyari town that gained traction on the internet a few days ago offered nature lovers some joy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Tulip gardens are a minor part of the germplasm collection of rare and endemic vegetation biodiversity. In Uttarakhand, it has been put together by the Forest Research Centre of the forest department during the last three years, a report of which was released by Sanjiv Chaturvedi, head of on May 24, 2020 in Haldwani. Germplasms are living genetic resources such as seeds or tissues that are maintained for the purpose of animal and plant-breeding, preservation and other research uses. These resources may take the form of seed collections stored in seed banks,

trees growing in nurseries, animal breeding lines maintained in animal breeding programmes or gene banks. Chaturvedi told

that this was the thirdbiggest germplasm collection in the country, after the National Botanical Research Institute in Lucknow and the Botanical Survey of India in Kolkata. “People at large are suffering from Plant Blindness—the inability to see or notice the plants in one’s own environment,” says Chaturvedi. We are more driven to conserve charismatic wildlife species, but not plant diversity, he says

Uttarakhand is home to a vast variety and unique range of floral and faunal diversity. The diversity, which includes 93 endemic species, is found in various types of vegetation—ranging from subtropical forests in the upper Gangetic plains and the Shivalik in the south to Arctic-alpine vegetation of the trans-Himalayan cold desert in Uttarakhand, according to studies.

Chaturvedi says that a total of 386 species with medicinal properties have been conserved. For instance, medicines prepared with the bark of also known as Himalayan Yew— are considered to be one of the best cures for breast cancer.

Similarly, a local herb,

Kakri, is always in great demand because of its enormous medicinal benefits—like lowering cancer risk, detoxification of the body and improving kidney and intestine health. Nurseries of this species have been developed at Badrinath and Munisyari. At least 375 tree species have been conserved—107 ficus, eight oak, 21 pines, six rhododendron species, 87 herb species, 85 shrubs, 33 bamboo species, six canes, 57 grass, 75 ferns, 64 orchids, 11 alpine flowers, 23 wild flowers, 61 palm and six cycad species. Around 150 cactus and succulent species, 22 aquatic species, 25 moss and two species of liverworts have been conserved as well.

The research wing of the Uttarakhand Forest Department has conserved 1,145 species through and conservation measures. Out these, 1,072 species were identified and 73 are yet to be identified. Eight species among these are criticallyendangered and 23 are endangered; 14 species are vulnerable; and, 12 are near threatened, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

OVERGRAZING, EXCESSIVE EXTRACTION OF MEDICINAL VEGETATION, DEFORESTATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE VARIATIONS HAVE PUSHED NUMEROUS SPECIES ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION

TOWARDS EXTINCTION Overgrazing, excessive extraction of medicinal vegetation, deforestation and climate change variation have pushed numerous species on the brink of extinction. Hence, it has become vital to conserve the gene pool of existing

Ficus krishnae at the Lalkuan Range Bixa orellana grown in the Tannin Species area, also at the Lalkuan Range