Naturol files patent for Paclitaxel extraction
process by which it extracts Paclitaxel from Canadian Yew trees for
use in a range of anti-cancer applications.
Naturol has filed a provisional patent application to protect the process by which it extracts Paclitaxel from Canadian Yew trees for use in a range of anti-cancer applications.
Naturol said that its development partner, the Prince Edward Island Food Technology Center (FTC) had successfully recovered high concentrations of Paclitaxel from Canadian Yew in the east of Canada using the patented process.
Global sales of Paclitaxel in 2000 were estimated at $1.6 billion, the company said. The main pharmaceutical product containing Paclitaxel sold in the US is Taxol made by Bristol Myers Squibb. US-based generic manufacturers of Paclitaxel with FDA approval include Ivax, NaPro and Mylan, Naturol added.
Paclitaxel is currently used to treat breast and ovarian cancer, certain types of lung cancer and AIDS, but some scientists believe that Paclitaxel is also beneficial in treating other cancers not presently on the FDA approved list.
Paclitaxel cannot be synthesised in a lab and has to be extracted from natural sources. Yew trees (or taxus plants to give them their Latin name) are the most widespread source of the compound and other taxanes, which are recovered from the bark, needles, wood and roots. The yew trees in Eastern Canada contain two to three times the world average concentration of Paclitaxel and other taxanes and are an abundant resource and sustainably harvested.
Naturol claims that its new process will have a major impact on the methods and costs associated with extracting the compounds. The company said its process was particularly suited to extracting Paclitaxel and other important taxanes from the Canadian Yew, and that because the process did not require the elevated temperatures conventionally used in drying yew cuttings (believed to destroy a significant portion of the taxanes present in the fresh cut yew needles and branches), higher concentrations of Paclitaxel could be removed.
"By using the Naturol extraction technology, the FTC has demonstrated the ability to produce extracts with a high concentration of Paclitaxel. The FTC and Naturol technical teams believe that through their ongoing development effort they will be able to increase this Paclitaxel concentration to at least a 30 per cent level," Naturol said in a statement.
The compounds will then be will be sold to FDA approved companies for further concentration and purification to 99.9 per cent bulk Paclitaxel, then converted to pharmaceutical grade products, the company said.
Naturol plans to process 10 million pounds per year of freshly harvested yew from five sites in Eastern Canada and recover Paclitaxel and other Taxanes in commercially acceptable concentrations. During 2003, Naturol projects revenues of as much as $9 million from the recovery of Paclitaxel and other taxanes from Canadian Yew.
