The first clinical trial looking at the topical use of kānuka oil for eczema relief has shown that a cream containing oil derived from kānuka is an effective emollient for treatment of moderate-to-severe eczema in adults.

Hikurangi Bioactives Limited Partnership and TRG Natural Pharmaceuticals developed the formula and sourced the kānuka oil from landowners in Tairāwhiti. The Medical Research Institute of New Zealand is an independent research centre based at Wellington Hospital and undertook the clinical trials. The product development and clinical research was funded by HBLP and TRG with a 40% subsidy from Callaghan Innovation, and a grant from Trust Tairāwhiti that is repayable if the product is successfully licensed. 

Since the product has been proven safe and effective, there is potential to make it available in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world. This involves identifying potential licensing partners who can be given permission to take it into different markets and jurisdictions. Each jurisdiction has its own rules about what a product must do to meet requirements depending on the category it is going into. These requirements are usually based on any claims the product suppliers want to make about it, what the packaging and label needs to include and exclude, and whether the product can be purchased in a general store, only in a pharmacy or only on prescription from approved prescribers. 

Once one or more licensees have indicated a commitment to ordering the product, preparation will get underway for supplying the oil and manufacturing the finished products. Production of the oil will involve the development of quality management systems and a testing regime to ensure the oil is of sufficient quality and meets the particular chemical profile required for use in the product that has been clinically proven. 

This product involves the following kinds of IP:

• knowledge about the specific formulation of the product; 
• knowledge relating to the design and implementation of clinical trials;
• knowledge generated by the clinical trial when the product was tested on participants, that has been published;
• knowledge about kānuka oil including production methods, its chemical profile and bioactivity;
• knowledge about kānuka and its wider ecosystem including how the plant grows (seasonal variation, climate, etc.);
• mātauranga relating to kānuka.

HBLP owns the knowledge of the formulation and results of the clinical trial and has the rights to commercialise this knowledge. The collective of Māori landowners owns all of the new knowledge generated by HBLP around the plant and kānuka oil. Kaitiaki own all their mātauranga related to kānuka. 

HBLP and TRG will benefit from a successful commercialisation of the product; as part of this HBLP will also give a significant percentage of its profits back to kānuka, funding projects that benefit the plant, communities and the ecosystems that support it. Māori landowners will benefit through their involvement in the harvesting and supply of kānuka brush, and the extraction of kānuka oil. The plan is to develop one or more kānuka oil extraction facilities that are owned by a collective of Māori landowners. Any company that licenses the product and takes it to market will also benefit.

In addition to the benefits for Māori outlined above, HBLP has prioritised Māori in this product development process by including a collective of Māori landowners in the research and development process and by having the ability to direct from whom the kānuka oil is purchased. This should ensure Māori landowners and whānau benefit directly from the supply of kānuka oil. As well, HBLP has been investing in work to establish a national kānuka entity that will be controlled by Māori and will lead the development of the kānuka oil industry in Aotearoa, ensuring that Māori benefit from the new industry and play a key role moving forward. HBLP is 50% owned by a charitable company that works to benefit Māori in the Waiapū Valley and other parts of Tairāwhiti through economic development, housing and food sovereignty initiatives.

Discussions are underway with potential partners who will take the product to market in Aotearoa. It is not yet clear how much the product will cost but HBLP is conscious of its responsibilities to ensure the product is available for Māori and other consumers in Aotearoa.

The involvement of a large pharmaceutical company will ensure this product can benefit many more consumers globally, to share the goodness of kānuka with them but also to create employment and economic opportunities for Māori communities in Aotearoa. The product may be manufactured in Aotearoa or overseas, depending on the company that licenses it. However, HBLP has negotiated the right to decide who supplies the kānuka oil, which is a key way to protect this opportunity for Māori in relation to the supply of kānuka brush and production of kānuka oil. 

In terms of knowledge about kānuka, this product does not affect the ability of Māori to use the plant or their knowledge of the plant, in any way they wish. Access to kānuka remains a resource on Māori and general land and landowners determine how it will be used. HBLP hopes that a flourishing kānuka oil industry will provide Māori landowners additional opportunities and incentives to protect and utilise kānuka.

No. This product only utilises published evidence that a specific formulation with kānuka oil in it is effective in treating eczema. There is no claim or restriction on the name ‘kānuka’ as part of this product being taken to market. 

Kānuka itself cannot be patented nor oil copyrighted. Plant Variety Rights could apply if a specific cultivar is bred and evidence submitted but this product is based on existing wild type kānuka and HBLP has no intention to create a breeding programme nor Plant Variety Rights for new varieties of kānuka.

This product does not commercialise traditional knowledge, but rather new knowledge being generated about a product that includes kānuka oil. However HBLP has worked hard, wherever possible, to ensure Māori own new knowledge about kānuka being generated associated with the development of this product, as well as continued ownership of their own mātauranga. 

HBLP does not claim or imply that its products are rongoā, but rather it is utilising extracts from a taonga species to develop a product and proving the safety and efficacy of that specific formulation. Rongoā practices have particular traditions within the Māori communities they are developed by and need to be protected and supported to continue within those communities. 

HBLP was established to create employment and economic opportunities with Māori landowners and communities in the Waiapū Valley. This product and all the associated research into kānuka is intended to derive significant benefits back to those Māori communities. Wherever possible, kaitiaki Māori have been given ownership of new knowledge associated with the development of this product. If commercialisation is successful then Māori landowners will derive benefits from the activity associated with supply of oil for the product, and also as a co-owner via Hikurangi Enterprises in HBLP.

The product was initiated by Māori in HBLP to benefit its Māori stakeholders in the Waiapū Valley. Pākehā have been invited to participate and invest based on the skills and expertise HBLP saw a need to bring into the development process. At no point in the product development process have Pākehā been encouraged to claim nor claimed ownership of kānuka, and HBLP has operated on the assumption that as a taonga species, both existing and new knowledge related to kānuka belongs to Māori. 

A western scientific method of clinical trials has been used to create evidence that this specific formulation is safe and effective in treating eczema. This is the limit of the claim to new knowledge associated with this product. It takes nothing away from traditional knowledge and the formulation and application of the product is based on more than just kānuka oil.

Māori are part of the team leading this research. As we develop more products from our taonga there will be less reliance on non-Māori researchers, investors and commercial partners and more appetite among Māori individuals and organisations to invest in these kinds of high cost, high risk ventures.

This kind of research is expensive, has a high chance of failure and can take a long time. Finding investors who are willing to take the risk is very difficult.