In South Africa
European network of NGO's
Pelargonium Patent Challenge against Dr. Willmar SchwabeOn the 25th and 26th January 2010, the ACB will give evidence at a hearing at the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich, Germany. The hearing concerns a patent challenge by the ACB on behalf of a rural community in Alice, South Africa, in collaboration with Swiss NGO the Berne Declaration. The patent being challenged is one granted to Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH (‘Schwabe’) and Company by the EPO on the 26 September 2002. The patent is in respect of a method for producing extracts of pelargonium sidoides and perlagonium reniforme (‘Patent A’) to make Schwabe’s blockbuster cough and colds syrup, Umckaloabo. The main claim in the patent is in respect of a procedure (percolation and maceration) for the production of an excerpt from pelargonium with an aqueous-ethanol solvent (10-92% ethanol). This procedure is not only commonly used in the phytomedicine sector but also for eons by traditional healers from the Alice community. The effect of the patent is to give Schwabe exclusive right in the countries that are parties to the European Patent Convention (EPC) over the next 20 years, to make, sell or import/export the active ingredients of the pelargonium roots that have been extracted by water and alcohol.
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