Samoan Healers to Share AIDS Drug Profits

The families of two Samoan women who passed on knowledge of a tree's healing powers will share in profits from any AIDS drug developed from the rain forest plant. The medicine women used the mamala tree to treat hepatitis. The plant's bark and wood contain prostratin, which inhibits HIV infection, according to an abstract in Blood, the journal of the American Hematology Society. In an agreement announced last week, the non-profit AIDS ReSearch Alliance promised to give the government of Samoa and the healers 20 percent of any commercial revenue it gets from the experimental compound. Scientists hope to begin the first clinical trials on humans within a year. The drug triggers dormant HIV cells so other AIDS drugs can attack them, said Irl Barefield, executive director of the AIDS ReSearch Alliance, which is licensed by the National Cancer Institute to research the drug. Besides exposing HIV for destruction, the drug seems to prevent the virus from entering healthy cells. If successful, the drug could earn millions of dollars a year for the Samoans, Barefield said. The National Institutes of Health would get 5 percent of any profits. All other profits would go towards AIDS research, he said.

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