NIAMEY, NIGER—A giant peanut roaster and grinder, a mixing and filling

machine—it doesn’t take all that much to produce the new ready-to-use

therapeutic foods (RUTFs). A factory barely larger than a house in the quiet

outskirts of Niger’s capital produces some 500 tons of Plumpy’nut annually.

But it can’t do so on its own: The company, STA, is a franchise of Nutriset, a

company in France that together with the French government owns the

patent to Plumpy’nut and similar pastes.

As the market for RUTFs is booming, that situation has come under

scrutiny. Aid organizations say there should be no patents on key humanitarian

nutrition products, and some worry that Nutriset, a small family-run

business, won’t be able to meet the soaring demand. “That is absolutely

becoming a problem,” says Ellen ‘t Hoen of the Access to Medicine Campaign

at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), one of Nutriset’s main clients.

Most past inventions in humanitarian nutrition, such as a widely used fortified

milk powder called F100, weren’t patented; nor was oral rehydration

therapy, a lifesaver for diarrhea patients. But Nutriset and the French Institute

of Research for Development obtained patents for Plumpy’nut that last until

2018 and are valid in Europe, North America, and about 30 African countries.

Nutriset has threatened lawsuits to keep others—including Compact in Norway

and MSI in Germany—from selling similar pastes.

Nutriset’s Adeline Lescanne says the company is rapidly boosting its own

production capacity and at the same time taking the technology to the developing

world, where it helps to stimulate the local economy. It has set up four

franchises—in Niger, Malawi, Ethiopia, and the Dominican Republic—that

have received equipment and training and now produce Plumpy’nut on a

small scale. It has also signed a licensing deal that lets Valid International, an

Irish charity, produce its own product under a different name.

MSF and UNICEF, another big buyer, acknowledge that so far there have

been no shortages nor evidence of price gouging. Nor is the patent valid in

many malnutrition hot spots, including India, where Compact is building a

factory and several other companies are interested as well. Still, MSF and

UNICEF don’t like to be dependent on one major producer for delivering

what is becoming an essential product to a large chunk of Africa. MSF says

Nutriset and other companies entering the RUTF market should forgo

patents—or at least be generous in cutting licensing deals.

It’s unclear, meanwhile, whether the patent would withstand a challenge by

a competitor. It covers not just Plumpy’nut but also, ‘t Hoen says, “pretty much

any nut paste with milk powder, oil, and micronutrients.” Other companies

could market a similar product and see what happens in court if sued, she

says—but neither Compact nor MSI have been willing to take that risk. Michael

Golden, who formulated F100, believes the pressure should not be on Nutriset

but on the French government; he hopes that France’s foreign minister, Bernard

Kouchner, a physician who helped found MSF in 1971, will intervene. –M.E.

Homemade. STA, in the Nigerien capital Niamey, is one of four Nutriset

franchises that produce Plumpy’nut in the developing world.

Published by AAAS

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