The Samoan government has claimed sole rights to a gene believed to fight AIDS (news - web sites) and cancer which grows in trees found in several Pacific nations, risking the ire of its neighbors. Using the 1992 international Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), Samoa last week became the first country to claim such rights over a native plant, the mamala tree (homalanthus nutans) whose bark is used to make AIDS and cancer trial drug prostratin. It also signed a 50-50 revenue-sharing deal with the American University of California, Berkeley, which is developing the potentially lucrative drug. Ownership of the gene gives Samoa exclusive rights to supply mamala bark even though the trees grow widely around the Pacific and have also been in traditional use in Fiji, Tahiti, Vanuatu and Australia.
