Robin Eisner | Jun 9, 1991 | 10 min read
A renewed interest in ancient pharmaceuticals spurs debate over the extent to which natives should be compensated Lisa Conte, president of two-year-old Shaman Pharmaceuticals in San Carlos, Calif., needed a way for her company to find new therapeutic agents to compete with massive drug-screening efforts and biotechnology-based drug-discovery initiatives waged by the major pharmaceutical companies. The strategy she came up with was to look for leads from plant-based, non-Western medicines used