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Global Warming’s Impact on the Pharmaceutical Industry

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Kevin Enriquez-Cruz, pharmacy student

Kevin Enriquez-Cruz, pharmacy student

by Kevin Enriquez-Cruz

Kevin Enriquez-Cruz is a second-year pre-pharmacy student from Naperville, Illinois. This article is the result of independent research conducted by Mr. Cruz.

Mother Nature provides humans the essentials to live, whether that are food, shelter, etc. More importantly, it provides means of creating and providing medications. Medication is a crucial resource society utilizes to stay alive today and endure for tomorrow. This is a staple to our healthcare system and is continuously advancing. But, what happens when these finite gifts of the world cease to exist? The pharmaceutical industry faces this ongoing challenge. Given the progressive effects of global warming on the world and humans due to their own contribution, this will change the way society goes about health care and will strongly impact the pharmaceutical industry. More specifically, scientists are calling for the preservation of nature’s finite resources to support pharmaceutical research.

To begin, global warming has already impacted the pharmaceutical industry by increasing the rate or occurrence of allergens and asthma. Jeannette Y. Wick, a visiting professor at the University Of Connecticut School Of Pharmacy and a freelance writer from Virginia, explains the cause of increase in allergens. In Wick’s article “Global Warming: Climate Change Impacts Allergy Season” she explains:

More than half of American adults test positive for an allergy to at least 1 seasonal pollen. The number of Americans with asthma…has increased more than 60% since the 1980s…In terms of allergy and asthma, our greatest concern involve increased greenhouse gasses. Because CO2 is the sole energy source for photosynthesis and 95% of plants on earth operate in a CO­2- deficient environment, increasing atmospheric CO2 will help plants thrive. (26)

The increase in asthma and allergies alone will increase the need for both over the counter and prescribed medication. This can only mirror the continual rise of diseases throughout the world.

On the other hand, global warming can in some aspects eventually help society. Gregg Easterbrook, a writer for The Atlantic, explains how global warming can benefit those in the high-latitude areas in “A 401 (K) For A Warming World.” He writes:

people are still far more likely to die from the cold than from heat—overall death rates in winter are much higher than those in the summer… If the cold areas of affluent nations became less cold, we would expect longevity to increase. That would be good for society, and also a reason to hold health-care (and pharmaceutical) stocks, since the elderly require far more in the way of hospital services and drugs. (62)

In some instances global warming can actually benefit the pharmaceutical industry. Easterbrook further presents global warming’s effects on society from an investor’s standpoint. He cites:

A 2005 World Health Organization report suggested that global warming may already cause 150,000 deaths annually, mainly by spreading illnesses common to hot nations. If diseases of the poor, low-latitude regions of the world began to reach developed countries, large amounts of capital would flow into the Pharmaceuticals sector as the affluent began to demand protection—so it could prove profitable to be holding pharmaceutical stocks… If malaria threatened the United States, this scourge might finally be cured. (62)

The sad truth is that, in order to progress in anything, something must be sacrificed. The demand for a cure for malaria in developed countries is far too low to be focused on. There must be more cases of any illness for research to be conducted immediately. Global warming can cause a higher frequency of an illness and force society to find a cure allowing the pharmaceutical industry to prosper.

More importantly, global warming has affected plant life from which certain medications are derived. Many species have been destroyed through deforestation before researchers could utilize them for diseases in dire need for treatment. With a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, Erin B. Newman contemplates the rate of deforestation and the impact on the pharmaceutical industry in her article, “Earth’s Vanishing Medicine Cabinet: Rain Forest Destruction and Its Impact on the Pharmaceutical Industry.” Newman presents:

Estimates of the deforestation rate of the world’s tropical rain forests range from 27 million acres (the size of New York or Pennsylvania) to 50 million acres (seventy times the size of Rhode Island) per year. In terms of other geographic references, this annual destruction totals an area larger than that of the Netherlands and Switzerland combined. One can also conceptualize this in smaller time increments: earth’s inhabitants are destroying rain forests at the rate of one football field’s worth every second and at least fifty to eighty acres every minute. This deforestation represents a net loss of approximately two percent each year…If deforestation continues at this astronomical rate, the world’s tropical rain forests will be completely and eternally destroyed within thirty years. (484-85)

Despite the fact that this was written in 1994, the rate of deforestation must be at a far worse rate. Along with the rate of deforestation the rate of species extinction is quite shocking. Newman explains:

To date, scientists have identified merely 1.4 million species of these multitudinous organisms. Despite the significant reliance on biological resources in the production of pharmaceuticals, only one to three percent of the 250,000 known flowering plants world-wide have been fully explored for medicinal potential. Given the current rate of deforestation, about twenty-five percent of these known plants may be extinct by the year 2050, if not sooner…The astronomical speed of deforestation is pushing species into extinction ‘at a cataclysmic rate: 27,000 species a year, seventy-four a day, three per hour.’ In fact, estimates range as high as 150 species lost per day. (486)

People are the cause of this chaos. Newman writes:

Experts estimate the natural rate of extinction to be merely two to three species per on hundred years. Clearly, estimates of today’s extinction rate far exceed this natural rate. This has led to the conclusion that ‘human activities in the last quarter of the the twentieth century are reducing biological diversity at a rate that may be unprecedented in the history of life on Earth,’ a rate as fast as at any time since the dinosaurs became extinct over 65 million years ago. (487)

 Nearly 20 years from the year of this article can only indicate that more and more species are becoming extinct. Numerous species cease to exist before scientists can discover their value to society. The human race is to take all the blame for this alarming rate of destruction. The problem with society is necessity for money. People demand revenue now rather than later. Newman writes:

 Because of this urgent need for financial resources, indigenous populations, often supported by their governments, value the short-term benefits of farming, logging and grazing over extractive forest uses, such as production of fruit, rubber, and medicine, which are more lucrative in the long run. They fail to appreciate the long-term benefits of sustainable development, or ‘progress without destruction of the environment,’ due to their dire need for immediate infusion of cash. (488).

 In contrast, the potential long term financial benefits from nature’s soils far outweigh the immediate financial gains of human deforestation. Newman expounds:

Based on statistical likelihood, some of the thousands of species threatened with extinction possess yet unexplored pharmaceutical potential. Indeed, possibly 1,400 rain forest plant species possess compounds with cancer-fighting potential…At the present rate of extinction, eperts estimate that over the next ten years, approximately twenty-five potential prescription drugs will be lost as a result of deforestation. This translates into an estimated loss to the pharmaceutical industry in the year 2000 and each subsequent year of $15 billion. (487)

Another statistic presented by Marcy J. Balunas, a collaborative researcher in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy for the College of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and A. Douglas Kinghorn, Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy for The Ohio State University, in their article, “Drug discovery from medicinal plants.” Balunas and Kinghorn state, “In both 2001 and 2002, approximately one quarter of the best selling drugs worldwide were natural products or derived from natural products” (432). Balunas and Kinghorn also mention who is involved in the drug discovery process. They note that botanists, ethnobotanists, ethnopharmacologisst, or plant ecologists, and photochemists are involved in this process. Each job plays a crucial role in drug discovery. Without one, the entire process is obstructed. In the same token drug research provides numerous jobs for the economy. The more jobs the economy has the better off a country will be. It has been well documented by Balunas and Kinghorn on how crucial natural products are used in drug research. Based on their own research statistics indicate, “Natural products have played an important role as new chemical entities (NCEs)…research on natural products accounts for approximately 48% of the NCEs reported from 1981-2002” (433). Not only do natural products play a substantial role in NCEs, Balunas and Kinghorn note, “Many structural features common to natural products (e.g., chiral centers, aromatic rings, complex ring systems, degree of molecule saturation, and number and ratio of heteroatoms) have been shown to be highly relevant to drug discovery efforts” (433). The complex properties of natural products are what make drug research so innovative. Harvey, director for Strathclyde Institue for Drug Research and Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, presents his ideas regarding using natural resources for their medicinal uses. In his article, “Medicines from nature: are natural products still relevant to drug discovery?,” Harvey states, “Since only a small fraction of the world’s biodiversity has been tested for biological activity, it can be assumed that natural products will continue to offer novel leads for novel therapeutic agents, if the natural products are available for screening” (198).

Regardless of the effects of global warming on the pharmaceutical industry, it will force pharmacists and the industry to modify their approach to how they deal with patients and the ever changing world due to global warming. Wick indicates immediate changes in perspectives for pharmacists when it comes to counseling patients, and is noted in a list in her table in her article that states:

Develop communication mechanisms to alert patients when allergy season arrives and what allergens are abundant…Advise patients to wash their clothes with soap and water immediately after outdoor excursions…Remember that patients may become unresponsive to specific antihistamines, and recommend rotation…Stress solutions that reduce global warming gas emissions and improve other health problems, such as eating less red meat and walking rather than driving…As educated health care clinicians, pharmacists should look for information that increases their eco-health literacy. (28)

Pharmacists must continually stay up to date on the adverse effects of global warming on their patients in order to provide necessary information in order to give the most appropriate suggestions during counseling. Not only does continual deforestation affects pharmacists locally, it affects the entire pharmaceutical industry at a global level. Newman suggests different approaches to solve the alarming rate of deforestation. Newman suggests:

Given the extent of the irreversible damage reeked by deforestation, developed countries must take the lead in halting this crisis by promoting economic growth through biodiversity preservation…however, requires willingness by the pharmaceutical industry to compensate developing nations for their resources. Each one also depends on involvement of the parties financially affected by deforestation—the pharmaceutical industry, governments of developing nations, and the indigenous populations of these countries. (501)

Scientists and researchers agree that preserving Earth’s natural resources will benefit our world in many ways. In the long run preservation of natural resources will be beneficial for both the economy and the people. More jobs will be created while also provide more opportunity for drug research allowing the pharmaceutical industry to flourish providing new treatments and or cures to various diseases. While the short run in this approach presents a financial scare, but the potential for discovery of new drugs and or cures is far too valuable to pass up.

Mother Earth has blessed the human race with ample amount of resources, scientists have proven that. Statistics have shown that Earth’s natural resources can potentially provide billions of dollars to the pharmaceutical industry. The problem is that society is using them in a way that decreases the longevity of the resources due to the mentality of desiring immediate profits. Destroying forests for lumber, agriculture, expansion, etc. only contributes to the ongoing global warming dilemma. While global warming presents some benefits to society and the pharmaceutical industry, the effects on plant life is far more substantial. At what cost does society pay for destroying the world for immediate cash? Day by day resources continue to be destroyed never reaching their full potential. Each human being has encountered illness in their lives, it is inevitable. Society’s reliance on medication to prolong their individual lives only magnifies the need to preserve the world. The human race must change its approach to our finances to preserve the world that has so much to offer. Or life will cease to exist before we know it.

Works Cited

Balunas, Marcy J., and A. Douglas Kinghorn. “Drug Discovery From Medicinal Plants.” Life Sciences 78.5 (2005): 431-441. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 July 2013.

Easterbrook, Gregg. “A 401(K) FOR A WARMING WORLD. (Cover Story).” Atlantic Monthly (10727825) 299.3 (2007): 62-63. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 July 2013.

Harvey, Alan L. “Medicines from nature: are natural products still relevant to drug discovery?” Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, Volume 20, Issue 5, 1 May 1999, Pages 196–198. SciVerse SciDirect. Web. 18 July 2013.

Newman, Erin B. “Earth’s Vanishing Medicine Cabinet: Rain Forest Destruction And Its Impact On The Pharmaceutical Industry.” American Journal Of Law & Medicine 20.4 (1994): 479. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 July 2013.

Wick, Jeannette Y. “Global warming: climate change impacts allergy season: how can pharmacists prepare for the health repercussions?” Pharmacy Times 78.4 (2012): 26+. Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 9 July 2013.


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