Sir

Your News Feature “The curtain falls” (Nature 414, 685; 2001) about the termination of the International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) in Chiapas, Mexico, was an excellent analysis of the complex issues that brought this innovative research and development project to an unfortunate end. However, there are three misinterpretations in the article which we, as members of the US Interagency Technical Advisory Group to the ICBGs, would like to correct.

First, you state that the aim of an ICBG is to find natural products for treating important diseases in the United States. This multifaceted programme, supported by several US government agencies, actually has the goal of identifying potential drugs to enhance the public health of both developing and developed countries, while promoting economic development and conservation of local biodiversity. Each ICBG is required to focus on disease areas of local importance as well as those of importance elsewhere.

The Chiapas ICBG was no exception, and planned to research potential treatments for diarrhoea, respiratory conditions, infectious diseases, contraception and other locally important health needs. Substantial effort and investment is made by all ICBGs to help local organizations develop sustainable economic uses of their natural resources, as well as models for sharing profits and other benefits that emerge from collaborative research efforts.

Second, referring to the innovative theatre used by the Chiapas ICBG for developing informed consent in Maya communities, your article's standfirst asked “But did the plays distract attention from the involvement of commercial interests?”. This could give the mistaken impression that distracting the audience from the possibility of commercial development was intentional or desirable. The participation of private companies to develop and market therapeutic agents is detailed in every publication or presentation about the ICBG programme, and was an explicit component of this community theatre.

Finally, you state that the National Institutes of Health asked the Chiapas principal investigator, Brent Berlin, to suspend collecting plant material late last year. In fact, the ICBG never initiated collections for drug discovery. Pressed, fumigated botanical specimens for taxonomic museum reference were collected in the first year of the project under a scientific collection permit issued by the Mexican government. When that permit expired, the group suspended these collections. The investigators subsequently decided that it was unproductive to pursue federally permitted taxonomic collections because these had provoked concern among people who were confusing basic research for taxonomy with potentially commercial drug discovery.

The controversy that has led to the termination of the Chiapas ICBG may have a chilling effect on the ability of scientists to develop transparent and ethical collaborations in natural-products drug discovery, biotechnology and other sustainable uses of biodiversity for local and global benefit. In our opinion, all parties have lost, not least local communities in developing countries. These stand to benefit from improvements in health care and from enhanced capability to use and conserve their disappearing biological resources and associated traditional knowledge.