Gene Campaign, a New Delhi based NGO has strongly condemned the "act of piracy" of US based companies which helped them establish intellectual rights over 'Jeevani' the country's first and perhaps most promising herbal drug developed through the participation of indigenous communities. The NGO has called for an international agreement against biopiracy, and feels that until then, developing countries will have to keep running to patent offices in the US and Europe, spending large amounts of money to challenge all illegitimate patents that are given on the property that belongs to their farmers and tribal people.

Responding to a series of reports in Pharmabiz which brought to light the unethical practices of Nutriscience Innovations LLC, a leading US nutraceutical company in getting Jeevani, a patent protected drug owned by the Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI), Thiruvananthapuram, registered as their trademark product in the USA, Gene Campaign said that "an IPR on Jevani is a deliberate act of theft and misappropriation and it must be condemned as such."

According to Dr Suman Sahai, convener, Gene Campaign, the piracy of Jeevani is one more blatant attempt by the pharma corporations to steal the knowledge and property of the rural and tribal communities of the world. "It is quite amazing that the same companies who are pushing for stronger IPRs on drugs they develop, on the argument of their innovation, are so quick to abuse the innovation of others. The indigenous knowledge which identifies the healing properties of Arogyapacha on which Jeevani is based, is a valuable knowledge system developed by the innovation of local communities and must be respected as their property," she said.

She maintained that the deliberate abuse of this kind of intellectual property developed by local communities in the developing world, is so typical of the hypocrisy of the pharma companies and the USPTO which maintains two standards - one for itself and the other for developing countries. "I think the only answer to this shameless insistence on stealing the property of others is to negotiate for an international agreement against biopiracy. Unless this happens, developing countries will keep running to patent offices in the US and Europe, spending large amounts of money to challenge all the illegitimate patents that are given on the property that belongs to their farmers and tribal people." TRIPS and the CBD will have to be linked so that the community rights of the CBD can find some expression internationally. This is acknowledged in the Doha agenda of the WTO but the developed countries continue to oppose any movement on this, she said.

Gene Campaign, a grassroots level organisation with presence in 17 states of India, was started in 1993 by Dr Suman Sahai and a group of people who were alarmed by the impact of international developments like WTO/TRIPS on the genetic resources of the developing world and the food and livelihood security of rural and tribal communities that depend on them.