Big Pharma now seeing dollars in natural remedies
Leave it to Big Pharma to trip over itself trying to synthesize—and profit from— what Mother Nature created for free. GlaxoSmithKline now has their eye on a specific compound in wine and berries that I've written about many times: resveratrol.
This amazing natural ingredient has been shown to slow aging in lab animals. Glaxo is offering $720 million in cash for a biotech company that was co-founded by the same researcher who did the resveratrol studies. The company, Sirtris, watched its stock jump 81.9 percent on release of the offer.
The active ingredients in resveratrol are enzymes called sirtuins. The researcher said that these enzymes could treat many of the major diseases in a "safe, natural way." That's right—Big Pharma is now admitting (to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars) that the same natural cures they regularly disparage are actually quite effective.
But don't expect this leopard to completely lose its spots. Glaxo may be flirting with the natural products market, but you can expect their version of "natural" to come with one hefty price tag.
My advice? Stick to the wine and berries. There's no question that the research that's driving this work is interesting and important, but manipulation of specific targets in the body (in this case, gene targets) with patentable, synthetic versions of natural substances runs the risk of unintended consequences down the road. I'll make sure you stay up to date on this development, because it's important to know what's safe and what works before anybody runs off and starts lining Glaxo's pockets.
