Marine Pharmacognosy - Supply Issue

Supply Issue

A common problem that plagues drug development is obtaining a sustainable supply of the compound. Compounds isolated from invertebrates can be difficult to obtain in sufficient quantity for clinical trials. Synthesis is an alternate source of the compound of interest if the compound is simple otherwise, it is generally not a viable alternative. Aqua culture is another alternative if the organism is readily grown otherwise, it may not be good sustainable source of a compound. Also, the small quantity the compound is usually found in from organisms makes this alternative even more expensive. For example, ET-743 can be isolated from the tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata with a yield of 2 g per ton. This would require thousands of tons of tunicate to be grown and extracted to produce the kilograms of ET-743 that would be required for the treatment of thousands of people. Some success has been had in producing compounds of interest from microorganisms. Microorganisms can be used as a sustainable source for the production of compounds of interest. They can also be used for the production of intermediates so that semisynthesis can be used to produce the final compound. This has been achieved for ET-743 with the production of the intermediate Safracin B from Pseudomonas fluoresens and the subsequent semisynthesis into ET-743. This is currently the industrial production method for the production of Yondelis.