Hope for fatties, lift-off for Bushmen

Fighting the flab

Soon, money fat people spend to make themselves thin will be used on uplifting a traditionally poor people living in the Kalahari Desert, a dusty corner of southwest Africa. Fatties by the millions around the world are expected to flock to pharmacies and health shops to buy extracts of the wonder cactus hoodia gordonilo help shed the kilograms.

P57, the active ingredient in the cactus that stimulates and helps the San desert dwellers, colloquially known as Bushmen, stave off hunger during long hunting expeditions, was isolated by South Africa's Council for Scientific Research (CSIR) and drug firm, Phytopharm, and will hit the summers' market soon with sales estimated at an immediate $300m, quickly making inroads into the obesity-treatment market, worth around $3bn in the US alone.

In an intellectual property sharing agreement, the San people will receive 8% of all milestone payments from Phytopharm and 8% of global sales thereafter once the drug is marketed. Other deals in the bag and being negotiated include a $35m licensing arrangement with Anglo-Dutch food giant, Unilever, for the exclusive right to produce hoodia-enriched "Slimfast" products, while salad bars serving slices of the 'miracle' cactus are expected to proliferate on the chic pavements of the world. "I envisage hoodia cafes in London and New York," says attorney Roger Chennels, who negotiated the deal for the San, "Salads will be served and the hoodia cut like cucumber on to the salad."

Chennels reports that the proceeds will allow the diminutive nomads to finally throw off thousands of years of oppression, poverty and social isolation and discrimination. "We will create trust funds with their hoodia royalties and they and their children will join South Africa's middle classes in our lifetime."

Will the Kalahari be able to meet the demand for the hoodia cactus? Probably not, which is why the CSIR is installing 'botanical supply' units in South Africa to keep the production lines rolling.

Copyright International Communications Jan 2006
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