Pact aims to turn scorpion venom into cancer-fighting drug

Santo Domingo.-The Environment Ministry on Mon. authorized the extraction of the venom from the local scorpion variety (Rhopalurus princeps) of the Buthidae family, as a genetic resource or to produce cancer-fighting medicines.

Environment minister, Francisco Dominguez, and Artur Mikaelyan, manager of the US-based pharmaceutical Medolife, signed the agreement to produce and raise the scorpions in a project in Neyba township, Bahoruco province (west).

With the two-year initiative, the foreign firm will conduct “research into the taxonomy, ecology, distribution, and composition of the scorpion’s venom and its therapeutic effects:

Exclusivity for the  DR

Dominguez and Mikaelyan also signed a Fair Distribution Contract which specifies that Environment guarantees during five years the exclusivity to produce the natural medicine.

Comments are closed.