effort to develop and design more effective and less toxic treat- 

 ments for these fatal illnesses. 



The NCI has played a crucial role in cancer drug discovery and 

 development since 1955. Following the recognition of AIDS as a 

 lethal disease, the NCI's infrastructure for drug discovery and de- 

 velopment were enlisted in 1987 to assist in the important task of 

 identifying promising new therapeutic products for this disease. 



The long history of screening for anti-cancer "lead" agents 

 served as a model to develop a similar tool to identify lead chemi- 

 cal structures of potential benefit for patients with AIDS. 



The NCI's laboratory-based efforts to develop newer approaches 

 to drug treatment have been responsible for producing many of the 

 currently available therapeutic products, e.g., AZT, ddl, and ddC. 

 Additional agents are currently under development with a major 

 objective being the expeditious preclinical evaluation to provide 

 safe and effective novel therapeutic products. 



Natural products play an essential role in both traditional and 

 modern medicine. While plants and microbial sources have formed 

 the basis for discovering many lead chemicals with therapeutic use, 

 marine organisms and many untapped microbes and plants remain 

 as potential sources of true chemical diversity. 



Many of the recent natural product discoveries were derived 

 from plants: taxol, camptothecin, and homoharringtonine have had 

 utility in the treatment of patients with cancer. Likewise, addition- 

 al promising plant products have been identified as potentially 

 useful for the treatment of AIDS, including michellamine, calano- 

 lide, costatolide, and conocurvone. 



Since 1986, there has been a renewed commitment to pursue the 

 search for active chemical leads within nature. Certainly, the di- 

 versity and complexity of chemical structures within nature out- 

 strip the efficiency and imagination of even our most talented 

 chemists. 



We rely on nature to provide the lead chemical structures which 

 can be subsequently optimized by natural product and medicinal 

 chemists. The NCI has taken extensive, bold measures to collect di- 

 verse samples of natural products from the forests, microbial 

 sources, and the sea. 



Our collectors are highly qualified scientists committed to conser- 

 vation and preservation of biodiversity. Candidate drug discoveries 

 have already resulted in concrete efforts to preserve natural habi- 

 tats. 



The NCI has taken the initiative to develop mechanisms to pro- 

 tect the rights of developing countries that have opened their bor- 

 ders to this critically important mission. We have obtained en- 

 dorsement from our scientific board of advisors to use the material 

 collected from Asia, Central and South America, and Africa to 

 search for potentially effective agents for the treatment of cancer, 

 AIDS, and, importantly, those diseases of importance to the host 

 countries. 



The NCI collaborated with the Agency for International Develop- 

 ment, the National Science Foundation, and the Fogarty Interna- 

 tional Center at NIH to sponsor a workshop on preservation of bio- 

 diversity. 



