Marine Natural Product

A marine natural product is a bioactive compound isolated from a marine organism, the basis of marine bioprospecting and marine pharmacology. Sponges, tunicates, cone snails, cyanobacteria, and marine fungi yield novel chemistry not found on land, and several have become approved drugs: cytarabine and trabectedin (Yondelis) for cancer, eribulin (Halaven), and ziconotide (Prialt), a cone-snail venom peptide for chronic pain approved in the US in 2004. Access to and benefit-sharing from these genetic resources are governed by the Nagoya Protocol under the Convention on Biological Diversity, and, for areas beyond national jurisdiction, by the 2023 BBNJ Agreement on marine biodiversity of the high seas.