Industrial Partnerships
Shaman Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Based in San Francisco, California, Shaman Pharmaceuticals has been working to discover and develop new classes of traditional pharmaceuticals derived from plants since its inception in May 1990. Its focus is the isolation of active compounds from tropical rain forest plants that have a history of medicinal use. Shaman is uniquely integrating the sciences of ethnobotany (the study of how native people use plants), medicine and plant natural product chemistry, and thereby pioneering drug discovery techniques that are proving more time-and-cost saving than the mass screening approaches typical of major pharmaceutical companies. Shaman's current therapeutic targets are antiviral and antifungal diseases, analgesia and diabetes. Throughout the drug discovery and development process at Shaman, there is a multidisciplinary exchange between ethnobotanists, plant natural product chemists, pharmacologists, physicians and pharmacists. Each year, 750-1000 plants come to Shamanís attention in this way, and of these, 300-500 meet its criteria for further development.

BDCP has collaborated with Shaman Pharmaceuticals in many projects and has adopted their benefit-sharing model.

Axxon Biopharm Inc:

The need for a business module that will greatly contribute to the sustainability of the BDCP programme and provide funds for development projects in Africa lead to the establishment of Axxon Biopharm. .PRIVATE Biotechnology Development Agency ( a major provider of BDCP resources) intends to embark on the discovery and development of a range of natural products for the pharmaceutical, phytomedicine, nutraceutical and personal care industries through Axxon Biopharm Inc.. The approach will be to process and manufacture selected products in Africa and market them in Europe, the United States and Asia. The project will provide a biochemical resource center for the analysis and standardization of herbal medicine and cosmetics for the region and will bring state-of-the-art screening technology to Africa, contributing a technology platform for future drug discovery. It will build on the consortium already established through BDCP for collaboration among universities, traditional healers, local pharmaceutical companies and other organizations in many African countries. In addition, the business will create entrepreneurial opportunities for the cultivation and processing of phytomedicines, medicinal plants and natural personal care products. The project will adopt the benefit-sharing scheme established by BDCP and contribute to the Fund for Integrated Rural Development and Traditional Medicine (FIRD-TM). It will also contribute towards national policy development.