|  The search for treasures derived from jungle pharmacopoeia is a practice funded by almost every major pharmaceutical company in the world. Call it bio-piracy or bio-prospecting, each company has its own branch of researchers combing the tropical forests of the world, often in secret. Indigenous people have gradually become aware of this and are rightfully seeking injunctions to keep multinational drug companies from patenting their traditional formulations. Most of these formulas are actually empirically verified treatments which native people have refined after a millennia of active research and development. At ATL we believe naturally occurring phytochemicals found in plants should never be “owned” by any one drug company. We strive to develop an equitable approach to cooperate with indigenous leaders in the marketing and cultivation of the plants and remedies which they, and their ancestors, have developed.
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