COVID-19 : VINDICATION FOR THE CSIR CONCEPT OF A CHEMICAL REPOSITORY OF COMPOUNDS SOURCED FROM INDIGENOUS PLANTS

Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation[i]v, announcing South Africa to look at African Medicines to fight COVID-19 – BusinessTech 8 July, 2020Top of Form

Introduction

The South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR[i]), established by an Act of Parliament in 1945, was the brainchild of General Jan Smuts. The CSIR’s Mandate is:

“The objects of the CSIR are, through directed and particularly multi-disciplinary research and technological innovation, to foster, in the national interest and in fields which in its opinion should receive preference, industrial and scientific development, either by itself or in co-operation with principals from the private or public sectors, and thereby to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the people of the Republic, and to perform any other functions that may be assigned to the CSIR by or under this Act.”

(Scientific Research Council Act 46 of 1988, amended by Act 71 of 1990)[ii]

The CSIR has been quick to jump onto the COVID-19 bandwagon. I would agree that finding treatment(s), or cures, is in the national and international interest. I believe that what we will see is a digging up of old research, rebranding[iii], and putting together a proposal to obtain funding to maintain a dysfunctional organization.

The reality is that there was a concept put forward to develop a chemical and extract repository/library, of compounds and extracts, from indigenous plants. The purpose of this repository was to provide a ready source of compounds and extracts to screen against diseases, especially in the event of an epidemic/pandemic. For this to be useful, a relational database, containing all relevant information and research data, including separation/purification methodology, etc, would have to be developed and maintained. A suitable storage facility would also have to be obtained and maintained. This concept went beyond a simple project for an MSc or Ph.D., it represented a strategic program, and required strategic vision and long-term planning and commitment, neither of which could/can be found in the Beyond 60 CSIR or the New CSIR. For a high-level WBS that I developed in an endeavor to explain the complexity of this program see https://share.mindmanager.com/#publish/YC0y9Uymx94ggnrMijtSCEbY-G6ssZG1l-uZHAoD

Obstacles

An early database of plants and collection points was poorly designed and, though developed on an Oracle platform, wasn’t developed as a relational database, resulting in very limited search capabilities. This requires rework in order to make this data available and searchable.

The Research Group that had some skills to separate/purify compounds was disbanded and retrenched in 2017, CSIR no longer has even the basic skills to perform this research, at no point in time did have the necessary equipment for isolation, purification, structural elucidation or storage to maintain the viability of the compounds.

The instrumental/equipment and infrastructure to carry out isolation/purification, structural elucidation work on this scale requires massive investment, with a poor or very delayed ROI, with high risk. This is why most pharmaceutical companies outsource this process to universities. It is also possibly why we have a lack of new antibiotics.

Conclusion

The announcement by Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation[iv], contains very little that is new, rather it is a rehash of ideas and approaches that have been around for decades and that have produced very little in terms of results. This lack of results has many causes, the first being that drug discovery is like gambling, and the more funds one puts in the greater the chances of winning, but there is no guarantee. Plant-based medicines are difficult to standardize and variation is the norm and not easy to predict. Identifying a single active is extremely difficult, as any natural product chemist can tell you. Meeting Regulatory standards is challenging and I have little faith in the current CEO at SAHPRA to provide a way forward.

In conclusion, the cause is a good one. Will we succeed? No, not if we follow the same people and organizations utilizing approaches that have failed in the past.

[i] https://www.csir.co.za/

[ii] https://www.csir.co.za/csir-brief

[iii] https://www.csir.co.za/exploring-use-indigenous-knowledge-based-products-response-covid-19

[iv] https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/414585/south-africa-to-look-at-african-medicines-in-fight-against-coronavirus-minister/