This pharma company🤝Indigenous communities

Biotech company Variant recently announced a $50 million multi-year research partnership with Novo Nordisk. The Seattle-based research and drug development company develops life-saving therapies for diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and kidney illnesses.

Its approach is as original as its partners. Variant concentrates its research on Indigenous populations, which helps both the scientists and the tribes studied, thanks to their unique model of compensating these communities.

• Studying Indigenous genomes allows researchers to obtain a larger database for study, potentially leading to the discovery of biological traits that may not exist in more regularly studied populations. Essentially: the more diversity in the data, the more life-saving discoveries are possible.
• In exchange for entrusting Variant with their genetic heritage, Indigenous communities get a cut of the profits, along with potentially lowered prices for any drugs developed. Variant has also agreed not to patent any genes, as other companies have previously done.

Other past issues: In 2007, a member of the Karitiana tribe in Brazil told the NY Times that his community had been “duped, lied to and exploited” by scientists who had collected their blood and DNA, which was later sold for $85/sample.

👀 Looking ahead…Valiant will be distributing a portion of the proceeds from the Novo Nordisk deal to the communities it worked with in nine countries or territories, the NY Times reports.