TaxolIn 1991, a patent was issued for the "Production of taxol or taxol-like compounds in cell culture" (No. 5,019,504). This miracle drug was an important break-through in cancer treatment. However, it only existed naturally in the bark of the Pacific Yew, Taxus Brevifolia, found solely in the Pacific Northwest, where the number of trees is limited. Further, a vast number of trees must be felled in order to collect the large amount of bark necessary for commercial drug production. Thus, clinical trials were limited by an extremely small supply of taxol. Alternatives, such as extracting taxol from yew needles, or to produce taxol synthetically, are source in the following years. Inventors Christen, Gibson and Bland assigned the patent the U.S. Dept of Agriculture. |
