Health and Healing: Ep 1 Transcript
Health and Healing
Episode 1
Hosts: Judy Durkin and Maia Zonis
Music plays under speaking…
JUDY
Hello and welcome to the first episode of “Significant Stories” the History of Science Podcast
from Harvard University. This is a three-part series on Health and Healing. I’m Judy Durkin.
MAIA
And I’m Maia Zonis. This series will focus on traditional medical practices and remedies and
their impact on the Western world. Each episode will center around a specific case study to
highlight important aspects of the connections between medicinal practices across time and
continents.
Music stops.
JUDY
In today’s episode Maia and I are going to talk about biopiracy, the connections between
Western and traditional medicine, and the legal battle that ensued in the 1990s when a piece of
traditional knowledge was patented in the United States. By traditional knowledge, we mean the
innovations and practices that were developed over centuries and sometimes millenia that are
integral pieces of local cultures and intrinsically linked to indigenous traditions. 1 We are
surrounded by patented products every day of our lives. Patents grant the exclusive rights to
ideas—the model of our cars, our coffeemakers, and the medicine in our cabinets… all of that is
patented. So… where does the right to patenting end?
MAIA
This question gets to the root of issues of biopiracy: defined as the exploitative practice of
obtaining patents on naturally occurring plants and other biochemical or genetic material without
fairly compensating the culture or community from which the traditional knowledge originates. 2
The term was introduced by Pat Mooney in 1993, who was, at the time, the executive director of
Rural Advancement Foundation International. 3 Determining whether a patent falls under the
category of biopiracy begs the question… what should be patentable and by whom?
JUDY
1“Traditional Knowledge.” UNESCO UIS , 21 Sept. 2020.
2 Heald, Henry F. “Patents on Life Forms: Biopiracy?” New Zealand Digital Library .
3 Heald, Henry F. “Patents on Life Forms: Biopiracy?” New Zealand Digital Library .
We are going to answer this question, in part, today by talking about the biopiracy of traditional
medical knowledge of herbs and plants with medicinal properties. You might be thinking… How
can someone patent a plant if it’s a part of nature? People own gardens, they own the specific
plants in those gardens. But, can one person, group, or company own the rights to that plant? The
answer is… maybe
In 1997, Dr. Vandana Shiva, a physicist and founder of Navdanya, a movement in India to
protect the diversity of living resources, popularized the term biopiracy in her groundbreaking
book Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge. 4 In this book, she compared biopiracy to
the pillaging and cultural erasure that was caused by early colonialism. She writes that biopiracy
works to undermine the: (quote) “original owners and innovators by defining their seeds,
medicinal plants, and medical knowledge as nature, as nonscience, and treating the tools of
genetic engineering as the yardstick of improvement … defining commercialized Western
science as the only science, and all other knowledge systems as primitive.” 5 (end quote). Here is
Dr. Shiva, speaking at the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation at Arizona State
University in 2014:
SHIVA
“So, the invention of seed being built into law, for me was so outrageous because I’d been
working to defend the integrity of species, the intrinsic value of every life form on this planet.
And to suddenly be told the life forms are inventions, the living seed was being reduced to raw
material for the biotechnology industry because you don’t invent the seed you take it from
somebody. Usually you just steal it. And so much of my life has gone in dealing with what I call
biopiracy. Now, seed exchange has always happened; exchanged is not piracy. But you come to
me and you take the seed and then you patent it and say, ‘I created it, now you pay me royalties,’
that’s biopiracy. Sadly this idea of totally constructed intellectual property in seed and life is
being pushed very hard, and it is having very high costs. Intellectual property rights on seed,
patents on seed, are a ponzi scheme.” 6
Transition music: chimes.
MAIA
And that… is exactly what happened with the story we are going to dive into today about the
case of turmeric and Patent 5,401,504 (five million, four-hundred and one thousand, five
hundred and four) which was granted in 1995 to two researchers at the medical center at the
University of Mississippi. Their claim argued that they discovered “a method of promoting
4 Shiva, Vandana. Biopiracy: the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge . South End Press, 1997.
5 Shiva, Vandana. Biopiracy: the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge . South End Press, 1997, pp. 4.
6 Vandana, Shiva. “‘Biopiracy: The Patenting of Seeds’ by Vandana Shiva.” YouTube , Arizona State University:
Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, 15 Dec. 2016. (Excerpts from 01:33-5:16).
healing of a wound by administering turmeric.” 7 To most people in India, the notion that this was
seen as novel was ridiculous. The use of turmeric in traditional medicinal practice dates back
nearly 4,000 years to the Vedic culture in India. 8
JUDY
Turmeric is quite the versatile plant—used as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, chicken pox,
urinary tract infections, and even digestive disorders. Not only is it used for its anti-inflammatory
properties, but also for its antimicrobial properties and ability to aid in breaking down bile as
well. 9 It is also used as a dye for fabric and a cooking agent to add color and flavor in traditional
Indian dishes. Sure, much of this was recognized by the two researchers in Mississippi in their
request for a patent, but none of this was new—there was no discovery or innovation made by
either of them. So then, how did turmeric get a patent in the United States?
MAIA
Let’s go back in time to 1992, three years before the turmeric patent was granted. The United
Nations introduced the Rio Earth Summit on Environment and Development due to international
concern that biological heritage was in jeopardy because of economic pressures on developing
countries. As a result, the natural resources that had previously been classified as belonging to
the global commons, and therefore not subject to property rights, were allowed to be used for
commercial value. 10
JUDY
The proposed intent of the UN was that this would encourage Third World governments to
conserve their biological resources by allowing them to profit from the chemical,
pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries, since that monetary value greatly outweighed the
funds gained through utilizing timber and agriculture. At least 7,000 of the most commonly used
drugs in Western medicine are derived from plants, so there was reason to believe that these
countries could find commercial value from their biologically rich environments. But, this isn’t
what ended up happening… The plants that are used to produce the 7,000 Western
pharmaceutical products are worth approximately $32 billion a year in sales worldwide, however
the Third World countries that were meant to benefit from these resources given that those
countries are responsible for supplying and maintaining a large portion of them, only receive
$551 million in return. 11
MAIA:
7 Das, Suman K., and Hari Har P. Cohly. Use of Turmeric in Wound Healing . 28 Mar. 1995.
8 Kumar, Sanjay. “India Wins Battle with USA over Turmeric Patent.” The Lancet , vol. 350, no. 9079, 1997, p. 724.
9 Prasad, Sahdeo, and Bharat B. Aggarwal. “Chapter 13: Turmeric, the Golden Spice,” 2011.
10 Merson, John. “Bio-Prospecting or Bio-Piracy.” Postcolonial Studies , 2015.
11 Merson.
Due to global inequities, the result of this decision was further manipulation and appropriation of
Third World countries and indigenous populations. 12
MASHELKAR
“I was reading the Times of India, and there was a newspaper report that the wound healing
properties of turmeric were patented in the United States of America.” 13
JUDY:
That was Dr. Mashelkar in a 2017 interview. While conducting research for this podcast on the
turmeric patent, Maia and I kept coming across his name and his important contributions in
combating the biopiracy of Indian traditional knowledge. Dr. Mashelkar was serving as the
Director General of the Counsel of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in India during the
1990s and brought attention to the injustices surrounding the patent that was granted in the
United States for turmeric. To legally patent something, even a plant, there are pretty strict
requirements that must be met in order to receive the patent. Patent criteria states that an
invention must be novel, non-obvious, and useful. 14
MAIA
But, how was this novel?
MASHELKAR
“The patents are always granted when there is something new, when there is something novel.
They are not granted if three criteria are not met: novelty, non-obviousness, and utility. And I
said obviously this cannot meet it because this has been used for centuries by our ancestors for
wound healing and for other medicinal purposes.” 15
Transition music: chimes.
MAIA
So, as the director of the CSIR, he entered a year-long legal battle with the United States Patent
and Trademark Office to demand they revoke the patent that was granted for turmeric. The
convincing argument by the CSIR in the trial was that turmeric could not be considered “novel”,
and therefore could not be considered a patentable product. Furthermore, they, due to the
extensive help of researchers were able to find 32 references to turmeric’s medicinal properties
12 Merson, John. “Bio-Prospecting or Bio-Piracy.” Postcolonial Studies , 2015.
13 Mashelkar, Raghunath A. “The Biopiracy of Turmeric.” YouTube , ViccoLabs, 20 Feb. 2017, 00:58-01:15.
14“Patenting Criteria: Novel, Non-Obvious, and Useful.” ThoughtsToPaper.com .
15 Mashelkar, Raghunath A. “The Biopiracy of Turmeric.” YouTube , ViccoLabs, 20 Feb. 2017, 01:21-01:51.
in Sanskrit, Hindi, and Urdu, which helped prove that it had been used long before the
researchers at the University of Mississippi claimed to discover those medicinal properties. 16
JUDY
Dr. Mashelkar stressed the importance of continuing to protect traditional knowledge such as
turmeric from biopiracy. He has stated that “ India fought the turmeric patent not for financial
reasons, but to uphold ‘national pride’ and to dispel unfounded fears that India was incapable of
protecting its traditional knowledge base.” 17 Although there are obvious negative financial
consequences of biopiracy, Dr. Mashelkar also stresses the value of these natural resources and
traditional knowledge in developing nations beyond a monetary commodity. India has a right to
claim the understanding of turmeric as a healing agent because it was a discovery made and
passed down within their culture.
MAIA
His work led to the introduction of a new internal patent classification system where subgroups
on traditional knowledge were created for the first time, and the world intellectual property
organization added information on handling intellectual property that involved traditional
knowledge This was a landmark case because it was the first time in the United States in which a
patent of a traditional remedy from the developing world has been successfully overturned. It not
only sent a message to other developing countries that there was a move towards protecting and
accrediting traditional knowledge sources, but also it led to countries actively documenting their
traditional knowledge practices. 18
Transition music: chimes.
JUDY
There is a long trend of western industry co-opting traditional medicine and repackaging it as
western medicine, both stealing the notoriety and the profits. An important aspect of biopiracy is
the trend of a predetermined, westernized “credible witness” speaking for and thereby claiming
ownership of discoveries originally made by indigenous populations. 19
MAIA
This problematic notion of westerners trying to impose their supposed legitimation of scientific
knowledge by speaking for other populations contributes to biopiracy cases such as what
happened with turmeric. This case acts as a proxy to learn how, throughout history, credit was
16 Balasubramanian, Saipriya. “Traditional Knowledge And Patent Issues: An Overview Of Turmeric, Basmati,
Neem Cases. - Intellectual Property - India.” Welcome to Mondaq , Singh & Associates, 18 Apr. 2017.
17 Jayaraman, K. S. “US Patent Office Withdraws Patent on Indian Herb.” Nature , vol. 389, no. 6646, 1997.
18 Jayaraman.
19 Hayden, Cori. “Taking as Giving.” Social Studies of Science , vol. 37, no. 5, 2007.
not initially given to the people who discovered the healing properties, but rather to the western
scientists who patented the plant. 20 This idea separates western medicine from traditional healing
practices and attributes a greater value to the former.
JUDY
The importance of focusing on biopiracy as an issue is to force people to see that western and
traditional medicine are inherently linked, even if it is often disregarded by many people in the
United States. When taking medicine and herbs from pharmaceutical companies, it’s imperative
to understand and give due credit to the source of the traditional knowledge that is responsible
for necessary discoveries.
MAIA
Addressing issues of biopiracy, such as in the case of turmeric, can give both financial credit and
national pride to the indigenous people or developing countries that deserve it. By continuing to
bring forward these types of biopiracy cases, indigenous populations can not only gain credit for
their discoveries, but also assert the legitimacy of traditional knowledge by showing how reliant
western medicine is on these traditional healing practices.
JUDY
It is worth thinking about the medicinal knowledge that has existed long before our lives, and
helps to sustain and nourish us every day
MAIA
It can start here, listening to this podcast, but we hope that you continue learning and recognizing
the biopiracy that surrounds us.
SHIVA
… Where will these mergers stop? Where will this greed stop? Where will this poison stop? We,
as people, are going to stop it. 21
Music plays under speaking…
JUDY
Thank you for listening to the first episode of Significant Stories the History of Science podcast
from Harvard University. I’m Judy Durkin
MAIA
20 Hayden, Cori. “Taking as Giving.” Social Studies of Science , vol. 37, no. 5, 2007 .
21Vandana, Shiva. “No Patents on Seeds!” YouTube , Seed Freedom, 20 Apr. 2016, 04:19-4:26.
And I’m Maia Zonis… please listen to the next episode in our Health and Healing series from
Chris who will share the story of his friend Kamil and his knowledge of traditional medicine in
the country of Djibouti.
JUDY
In this special episode, Chris and Kamil have an in-depth conversation that explores a different
aspect of traditional knowledge and the local medical treatments of the Afar tribe. Thank you so
much for listening.
Music stops.
Works Cited
Prasad, Sahdeo, and Bharat B. Aggarwal. “Chapter 13: Turmeric, the Golden Spice.” Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects , edited by Iris F.F. Benzie and Sissi Wachtel-Galor, 2nd ed., CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, 2011.
Balasubramanian, Saipriya. “Traditional Knowledge And Patent Issues: An Overview Of Turmeric, Basmati, Neem Cases. - Intellectual Property - India.” Welcome to Mondaq, Singh & Associates, 18 Apr. 2017, www.mondaq.com/india/patent/586384/traditional-knowledge-and-patent-issues-an-overview-of-turmeric-basmati-neem-cases.
Das, Suman K., and Hari Har P. Cohly. Use of Turmeric in Wound Healing . 28 Mar. 1995.
Hayden, Cori. “Taking as Giving.” Social Studies of Science , vol. 37, no. 5, 2007, pp. 729–758., doi:10.1177/0306312707078012.
Heald, Henry F. “Patents on Life Forms: Biopiracy?” New Zealand Digital Library, www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0hdl--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-10.
Jayaraman, K. S. “US Patent Office Withdraws Patent on Indian Herb.” Nature , vol. 389, no. 6646, 1997, pp. 6–6., doi:10.1038/37838.
Kumar, Sanjay. “India Wins Battle with USA over Turmeric Patent.” The Lancet , vol. 350, no. 9079, 1997, p. 724., doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)63536-2.
Mashelkar, Raghunath A. “The Biopiracy of Turmeric.” YouTube , ViccoLabs, 20 Feb. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=edXCDpiAT8s.
Merson, John. “Bio-Prospecting or Bio-Piracy.” Postcolonial Studies , 2015, pp. 570–583., doi:10.1002/9781119118589.ch34.
“Patenting Criteria: Novel, Non-Obvious, and Useful.” ThoughtsToPaper.com , www.thoughtstopaper.com/knowledge/patenting-criteria-novel-non-obvious-useful.php
Shiva, Vandana. Biopiracy: the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge . South End Press, 1997.
“Traditional Knowledge.” UNESCO UIS , 21 Sept. 2020, uis.unesco.org/en/glossary-term/traditional-knowledge.
Vandana, Shiva. “No Patents on Seeds!” YouTube , Seed Freedom, 20 Apr. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjoT4kYmR3g.
Vandana, Shiva. “‘Biopiracy: The Patenting of Seeds’ by Vandana Shiva.” YouTube , Arizona State University: Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, 15 Dec. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuTHBjl8XZA.