Thanks

Your used Christmas tree might save you from a bird flu pandemic.

As governments around the world scramble to stockpile the antiviral Tamiflu, generic drug maker Biolyse Pharma Corp. plans to begin next month making shikimic acid, the main ingredient in the manufacture of oseltamivir, commonly known as Tamiflu, from the needles of discarded Christmas trees.

Tamiflu, as almost everybody knows by now, treats seasonal influenza and is also being championed as a first line of defence against a possible pandemic outbreak of bird flu, which has been devastating chicken populations across Southeast Asia and parts of Europe.

So far, the H5N1 virus, which usually strikes people in close contact with diseased fowl or their droppings, has infected an estimated 130 people, killing 70. The worry is that H5N1 will undergo a genetic mutation with a human seasonal influenza virus, morphing into a deadly strain that could jump between people like the common cold.

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After being rejected as a Tamiflu supplier by Swiss drug maker F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., which has a monopoly grip on the manufacture of the drug, Biolyse turned its sights to making shikimik acid.

The reason: the price of shikimik acid has soared to more than $500 (U.S.) a kilogram from $45 in the past 12 months on shortages of Tamiflu and skyrocketing demand.

Biolyse specializes in extracting chemicals from plants and biomaterials at its plant in St. Catharines, Ont., and now makes a generic version of the cancer drug paclitaxel from yew trees.

“Our research has shown that 2-to-3 per cent of the biomass from various pine, spruce and fir trees is extractible shikimic acid,” Biolyse principal Claude Mercure said yesterday.

As the process moves to the commercial stage from the laboratory, he said the company is aiming to eventually produce one-to-three tons of shikimic acid a month.

To get started, next month it will receive some 500,000 Christmas trees to be donated by Toronto-based Gro-Bark, a forestry recycling company.

Most shikimic acid is now extracted from star anise, the fruit of a slow-growing evergreen in China, which is harvested for several months each year. That’s why Roche’s production of Tamiflu takes about 12 months and there isn’t nearly enough of the drug to go around for government stockpiling.

“What makes our process more viable is the fact that the particular species of pine, spruce and fir that we are working with are far more abundant than the seedlings of star anise,” said John Fulton, Biolyse’s vice-president for new product development.

Mr. Mercure said Biolyse has no plans to make Tamiflu unless Ottawa grants compulsory licences under the Patent Act in a national emergency. In such a case, he said the company could produce the drug in five weeks.

In countries where Roche’s patents on Tamiflu aren’t recognized, like the Philippines and Thailand, he said Biolyse is in discussions to sell shikimic acid and provide technical assistance so the drug can be manufactured for use in that country.

The Roche fermentation method (AFAIK licenced from John Frost – http://www.frostchemlab.com) involves “plumbing” E Coli’s shikimic acid synthesis by removing key bottlenecks and feedback responses in the bacteria. It is slightly less economical to make shikimate than to buy it; and until now, Roche has maintained the fermenters solely as economic leverage against China.

I can tell you that after listening to California’s officials talk about the public health infrastructure over the last few days, it’s not looking so great. Cuts in funding having taken quite a toll on public health. I keep hoping that news of avian flu will disappear… not so much luck in that department.

Roche only has assigned patents for chemical synthesis of shikimic acid. They must have bought out someone else’s patent for the “fermentation process”. In addition to your find, I found this one from the Ajinomoto Company. Both use the same basic principle of introducing certain genes into bacteria to enable them to produce large quantities of shikimic acid or its precursor. So I conclude that Roche’s patent is one of these, or one using the same principle. I’m not a patent expert, but I imagine that Cipla could try to patent a new method of manufacture by using a different bacterium/different genes to generate a different shikimic acid precursor. But even thats moot if Roche’s patent for the end product (Tamiflu) is upheld in Indian courts.

Now I’m going to check out Suhail’s link and laugh it all off.

timepass: I was in a similar situation, until I got hold of Jon Stewart’s pithy take from his Daily show(via BoingBoing – 10MB). One word: Hilarious. Chk out that whacky Bushism midway through the video… therez loads of gyaan for us

ps: cicax, you’ll need Quicktime to play that file