Challenges Involved in Developing a Drug from the Sea

Andersen, R. W. M. Van Soest and F. Kong, in Alkaloids Chemical Biological Perspectives, 

Aituso, Drugs of Natural Origin Economic and Policy Aspects of Discovery, Development, and Marketing, The Pharmaceutical Products Press, New York, 1997, p. 142. 

After a bioactive marine natural product lead structure has been identihed, 

Neumann, R. Thiericke and S. Grabley, in Drug Discovery from Nature, ed. S. Grabley and R. Thiericke, Springer, Berlin, 1999, ch. 3, p. 51. 

The first step in discovering a marine natural product lead compound involves accumulating collections of the source organisms. Ideally the collections would include as many species as possible collected from a large number of sites reflecting the wide diversity of habitats found in the world s oceans. The development of SCUBA and both manned and remotely operated (ROV) submersibles has provided the technology required to effectively collect algae and invertebrate specimens from most marine habitats. Consequently, the major issue 

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