Agreement on development of anti-AIDS drug

22/12/93

An historic agreement was signed today to help conserve Western Australia's native flora at the same time as allowing the development of a new pharmaceutical drug for the possible treatment of AIDS.

In a joint announcement, Premier Richard Court and Deputy Premier Hendy Cowan said the agreement could bring the State more than $5 million for research and conservation work.

Environment Minister Kevin Minson and Conservation and Land Management executive director Dr Syd Shea signed the contract with AMRAD Corporation Ltd.

AMRAD, an Australian company, has been provisionally allocated a world-exclusive licence by the US National Cancer Institute for the development of conocurvone.

Mr Court said the compound - derived from a smokebush plant found only in Western Australia - had shown promising results in early tests for a treatment for AIDS.

"Testing is only in its early stages and this agreement means far more than royalties from any fully developed drug," he said.

"What is so important is that the agreement ensures the involvement of WA scientists in the research work and it brings private sector investment for nature conservation.

"This agreement sets an internationally significant precedent and opens the way for other countries to benefit from their natural resources."

The Department of Conservation and Land Management has formed a research consortium of 30 scientists - chemists, ecologists, biologists, virologists, horticulturalists, medical research workers, botanists and remote sensing specialists - to develop conocurvone to a marketable product.

The consortium, which is chaired by CALM's director of science and information, Dr Jim Armstrong, includes scientists from the department, WA universities and the Government's Chemistry Centre.

Mr Cowan said the consortium had already made significant progress in studying the active chemical, its location and concentration in the target plant species.

"The group has also discovered an improved method of extracting the compound and its work has allowed CALM to lodge six provisional patents in the past six months," he said.

The CALM-AMRAD agreement provides for:

·       the rapid production of conocurvone, while the plant resource from which the drug is to be obtained is protected and conserved;

·       cost recovery funding by AMRAD for the consortium's work.  AMRAD's general manager of business development, Barry Moore, today presented Mr Minson with a cheque for $1.15 million - part of research funding by AMRAD to ensure other WA smokebush species with potential pharmaceutical properties are protected, evaluated and developed;

·       significant royalties to be paid to the WA community from the sale of developed pharmaceutical products;

·       the establishment - at no cost to taxpayers - of the full range of facilities needed to initiate a pharmaceutical infrastructure for the State.

"The infrastructure now being set up here will ensure we receive an appropriate commercial return from sustainable use of our State's wildlife," Mr Cowan said.

"There have been too many examples of other countries reaping the benefits from our natural resources.

"The conocurvone initiative will undoubtedly provide jobs for Western Australians, including highly skilled scientists, many of whom in the past have had to leave the State for employment."