DANISH MNC CLAIMS MOLECULE FROM AMAZONIAN BIRD

The company, Novo Nordisk, is laying patent claim to a potentially valuable bit of biodiversity from an Amazon bird in the apparent absence of an access and benefit-sharing agreement.

By Edward Hammond

The Danish multinational Novo Nordisk is staking a patent claim to a molecule from the hoatzin, a unique Amazonian bird.

The molecule, which is a type of protein called a lysozyme, is a natural defense against bacteria produced in different forms by many species.

Varying types of lysozymes can be found in everything from oyster juices to chicken eggs to breast-milk. Lysozymes fight infection by attacking the cell walls of bacteria, rupturing and killing them.

Novo Nordisk's specific patent claim covers a hoatzin lysozyme as well as mutations of it created through techniques including radiation, site directed mutagenesis, and synthetic biology. The lysozymes of the Amazonian bird, the company says, can be used "as antimicrobial agents in animal feed, cheese production, food preservation, detergents, oral care, cosmetology and dermatology."

A Strange Bird

By many measures, the hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin) is an unusual animal. Looking a bit like a cross between a wild turkey and a peacock that had a painting accident, the 65 centimetre bird has red eyes, blue cheeks, an odd crest, and various colours of spiky feathers. It can't fly very well because its elaborate digestive system occupies much of the chest space where other birds have flight muscles.

The hoatzin's smell is reminiscent to that of cow manure, which stems from the fact that it is one of only two avian foliovores, meaning that it eats a diet mainly composed of tree leaves. The hoatzin's digestive system is thus compared to that of ruminants. The bird's crop, or foregut, acts to "pre-digest" leaves before they pass to its stomach, and the hoatzin has some of the same digestive microbes as cattle. The similarities have led the hoatzin to be called "the bird that thinks it's a cow".

The unusual biology of the hoatzin flummoxes taxonomists, who have assigned it to its own genus, and who disagree on how it is related to other birds. The hoatzin is found in all the countries of the Amazon basin, and is the national bird of Guyana.

Why Patent the Hoatzin's Lysozyme?

Novo Nordisk's interest in the hoatzin is traceable to research conducted in the 1990s by scientists at the University of California at Berkeley, who obtained hoatzin tissues from Venezuelan researchers. The Berkeley studies show an interest in isolating and comparing hoatzin lysozymes with those of other leaf-eating animals.

In general, lysozymes help fend off bacterial infection; however, in leaf eaters they are thought to be especially important in an additional role. The digestion of foliovores is aided by large bacterial communities that break down tough plant cell walls. Lysozymes of leaf eaters in turn break down the bacteria, allowing the animal to digest nutrients that the bacteria extract from leaves.

In 1994, the Berkeley researchers extracted and sequenced the DNA for the hoatzin lysozyme. But the Berkeley researchers were interested in comparing the hoatzin lysozyme with that of other species, to see what might be learned, not selling products. It does not appear to have interested them that the lysozyme that they were the first to describe in detail might in and of itself – or with slight derivation – be a commercial product.

Researchers at Novo Nordisk's Novozymes subsidiary, on the other hand, specialise in identifying and commercialising enzymes with industrial uses. Bird lysozymes are of interest to the company because of existing markets for chicken hen egg white lysozyme (HEW lysozyme). These include use as a preservative for meats, cheeses, in winemaking, and other food products. HEW lysozyme is also used in biological research and pharmaceuticals.

Novo Nordisk researchers have genetically engineered an Asian fungus (Aspergillus oryzae) to express the hoatzin enzyme. A. oryzae, or koji, is used in fermentation of soybeans and rice to produce a variety of foods and alcoholic beverages in China, Japan, and elsewhere. Strains of koji have been selected and genetically engineered as "platforms" for industrial production of enzymes.

Novo Nordisk researchers have demonstrated that hoatzin lysozyme is (unsurprisingly) active against bacteria, and that it remains stable in a simulated digestive tract for longer than HEW lysozyme. They also demonstrated (again unsurprisingly) that a variety of slightly mutated variants of hoatzin lysozyme can also be useful, with these derivates selectable to confer specific characteristics such as increased stability or activity at different pH levels.

The company claims use of the isolated lysozyme, and a variety of mutated forms as its invention. The company does not identify specific uses for the hoatzin enzyme, rather keeping its claims at the broad level of a "method for reducing microbial contamination" and over use "as antimicrobial agents in animal feed, cheese production, food preservation, detergents, oral care, cosmetology and dermatology."

Where the Benefits Accrue

Novo Nordisk prides itself on business ethics and says that it has trained 99% of ‘relevant' employees in them. The company's overall business, including drugs and other products, is very lucrative. It reported a net profit (after all expenses) of over US$3.8 billion in 2012. The Novozymes subsidiary reported US$1.95 billion in sales and $351 million in after-tax profits.

Novozymes projects an image of political engagement in biodiversity-related issues. It says that it is "dedicated to building a biobased economy, not only through the products and solutions the company develops, but also by participating in the political processes that will shape the world of tomorrow."

The company's annual report contains information on its environmental and social targets, such as carbon emissions, water use, workplace diversity, and labour standards, as well as contributions toward the Millennium Development Goals. (Some of these items are mandated by Danish law.)

The focus on a "biobased economy" isn't for altruistic reasons. For instance, Novozymes says it is actively working to secure language in the United Nations encouraging greater use of agro-fuels. One of Novozymes most profitable products is an enzyme used in the production of ethanol from maize. The company is also promoting fuel ethanol consumption and production in Africa.

Novozymes' annual report says that it is "committed to principles derived from the United Nations Global Compact and United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity." The meaning of "derived" is not explained.

This, however, is the only reference to the CBD that the company makes, and there are no further references to the CBD or access and benefit-sharing that might shed light on what prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms arrangements the company has made, if any, in relation to its hoatzin lysozyme patent application.

A search outside the company's annual report, and the patent application itself, yield no further information indicating or suggestive of an access and benefit-sharing agreement.

The company says that it has entered into two "partnerships on utilization of genetic resources" (Thailand, 2002 and Kenya, 2007) and that it "supports the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in terms of ‘the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources'" but neither of these arrangements appears applicable to the hoatzin or any Amazonian country.

It thus appears that despite Novo Nordisk's ethics training and environmental commitments, the company is laying patent claim to a potentially valuable bit of biodiversity from the Amazon's bird that thinks it's a cow, in the apparent absence of an access and benefit-sharing agreement, and bringing into question what intent the company has in its engagement in the biodiversity "political processes that will shape the world of tomorrow." – Third World Network Features.

-ends-

About the author: Edward Hammond is a senior policy researcher based in the US.

The above article is reproduced from the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS) #7608, 19 June 2013.

When reproducing this feature, please credit Third World Network Features and (if applicable) the cooperating magazine or agency involved in the article, and give the byline. Please send us cuttings. And if reproduced on the internet, please send the web link where the article appears to twnet@po.jaring.my.

3970/13