JOY AS PELARGONIUM PATENT REVOKED

Munich 26 January 2010.
The Opposition Division of the European Patent Office (EPO) has today
revoked a patent granted to Dr. Willmar Schwabe (Schwabe) in its entirety.
The patent was opposed by the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) from
South Africa acting on behalf of a rural community in Alice, in the
Eastern Cape, in collaboration with the Swiss anti-biopiracy watchdog, the
Berne Declaration.

The patent was in respect of a method for producing extracts of
Pelargonium sidoides and Pelargonium reniforme to make Schwabe's

The ACB has recently lodged an objection to Syngenta's application for the commercial release of its GM maize GA21, and we have also today lodged an application with the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) for a full environmental impact assessment for this GM maize to be conducted. To date, despite more than ten years of commercial growing of GMOs, the South African government still has to call for an EIA for any GMO release. We have in the past made several representations to the SA government for EIAs to be conducted but these have to date, been unsuccessful.

On the 25th and 26th January 2010, the ACB will give evidence at a hearing at the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich, Germany. The hearing concerns a patent challenge by the ACB on behalf of a rural community in Alice, South Africa, in collaboration with Swiss NGO, the Berne Declaration. The patent being challenged is one granted to Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH and Company ('Schwabe') by the EPO on the 26th September 2002. The patent is in respect of a method for producing extracts of Pelargonium sidoides and Pelargonium reniforme to make Schwabe's blockbuster cough and colds syrup, Umckaloabo. The main claim in the patent is in respect of a procedure (percolation and maceration) for the production of an extract from the pelargonium using an aqueous-ethanol solvent (10-92% ethanol). This procedure is not only commonly used in the phytomedicine sector but also has for eons been used by traditional healers from the Alice community. The effect of the patent is to give Schwabe the exclusive right in the countries that are parties to the European Patent Convention (EPC) over the next 20 years, to make, sell or import/export the active ingredients of the pelargonium roots that have been extracted by water and alcohol.

Tanzania to grow new maize variety
By Zephania Ubwani, Nairobi

Tanzania will start cultivating water efficient and high yielding maize varieties under a five-year project supported by the International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre (CIMMYT).

Two maize varieties - TAN 250 and TAN 254 - have been developed for the purpose after years of experimental trials involving local agricultural research institutes.

Originally published in The Ecologist

Claire Robinson and Jonathan Matthews

11th January, 2010

Despite promising the world in 2009, biotech corporations have increasingly raised the hackles of scientists and citizens worldwide 2009 was a year in which the biotech industry, Gates and their US Administration allies did everything in their power to drive the world down the GM road, but it was also a year marked by remarkable global resistance.

Read the full article

Dear friends and colleagues

Prediction of exacerbated drought in Africa due to climate change is apparently the driving force behind the establishment of the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) initiative, another prong of the so-called "New Green Revolution for Africa". WEMA seeks to develop drought tolerant maize varieties through a program which is being presented as a panacea for solving issues of hunger on the continent using marker assisted breeding and genetic engineering. That this is being done under the guise of philanthropy sidesteps questions about the real causes of hunger, disregards issues of imbalanced global distribution of food and underplays the financial benefits to be derived by the various proponents of the scheme. The possible risks to small-scale farmers, whom WEMA targets, include loss of biodiversity through gene flow, a dependence on expensive inputs into farming, possible exposure to intellectual and property rights claims and impacts on their food security. The most effective ways of supporting small-scale farmers is through agro-ecological approaches to farming. These focus on small-scale sustainable agriculture; locally adapted seed and ecological farming that better addresses the complexities of climate change, hunger, poverty and productive demands on agriculture in the developing world.

Click here to download a briefing paper titled Africa's Green Revolution Drought Tolerant Maize Scam by Dr Shenaz Moola which deals with the key issues. We trust that the paper will assist you in your work.