Natural Products Drug Discovery and Development at the United States National Cancer Institute

Abstract

Between 1960 and 1982, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) screened over 180,000 microbial-derived, some 16,000 marine organism-derived, and over 114,000 plant-derived extracts. A number of clinically effective chemotherapeutic agents were developed, mainly through collaborative efforts with the public and private sectors. These agents include paclitaxel, camptothecin derivatives, various anthracyclines, bleomycin, actinomycin and mitomycin. Since 1986, collections of plants and marine invertebrates have been performed in over 25 tropical and subtropical countries worldwide through contracts with botanical and marine biological organizations, working in close collaboration with source country organizations and subject to agreements with the source country authorities. Over 120,000 extracts are stored at low temperatures in the NCI Natural Products Repository and are made available to the scientific community for testing in screens related to all human diseases, subject to the signing of Material Transfer Agreements, which protects the rights of all parties, particularly those of the source countries. In addition, Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) have been signed with qualified organizations in over ten source countries for direct collaboration in the drug discovery and development process. A major goal of these collaborations is to promote drug discovery in the source country, with NCI collaborating in the preclinical and clinical development stages.