Calixto João B
Centro de Inovação e Ensaios Pré-clínicos/CIEnP, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil.
An Acad Bras Cienc. 2019;91 Suppl 3:e20190105. doi: 10.1590/0001-3765201920190105. Epub 2019 Jun 3.
The global medicine market is about 1.1 trillion US dollars. About 35 percent of medicines have originated from natural products. Brazil presents the largest biodiversity in the world, with more than 50,000 species of higher plants. However, few innovative products have been developed in Brazil from active constituents derived from the Brazilian biodiversity. Scientific evidences on plants and venoms have been internationally published by Brazilian scientists over the last 4 decades; but few examples of innovative products are commercially available. Few examples include the anti-hypertensive drug captopril first identified in the venom of the Brazilian viper Bothrops jararaca by Professor Sergio Ferreira; and some phytotherapeutic agents such as Acheflan®, Syntocalmy® and Melagrião® produced by standardized plant extracts with scientific proof of safety, efficacy and quality. Still, only Acheflan® and Melagrião® are obtained from native Brazilian plants. Several issues contribute to the lack of innovative products from the Brazilian biodiversity, but in my opinion, the most challenging ones are i) the lack of specific regulations to allow researchers and companies to access biodiversity for the purposes of scientific and technological innovation; and ii) the absence of a long-term government program to support research and innovation in this field.
全球药品市场规模约为1.1万亿美元。约35%的药品源自天然产物。巴西拥有世界上最丰富的生物多样性，高等植物超过5万种。然而，巴西利用其生物多样性中的活性成分开发的创新产品却很少。在过去40年里，巴西科学家在国际上发表了关于植物和毒液的科学证据，但市面上可供商业销售的创新产品却寥寥无几。少数例子包括塞尔吉奥·费雷拉教授首先在巴西蝰蛇（Bothrops jararaca）毒液中发现的抗高血压药物卡托普利；以及一些植物治疗剂，如由标准化植物提取物制成的Acheflan®、Syntocalmy®和Melagrião®，这些产品具有安全性、有效性和质量的科学证明。不过，只有Acheflan®和Melagrião®是从巴西本土植物中提取的。导致巴西生物多样性缺乏创新产品的问题有很多，但在我看来，最具挑战性的问题是：其一，缺乏允许研究人员和公司为科技创新目的获取生物多样性的具体法规；其二，缺乏支持该领域研究与创新的长期政府计划。
