Fishing for drugs from the sea: status and strategies

Marine organisms represent an enormous, essentially unexploited, resource of natural products. Globally, the race to develop marine-derived drugs is well under way with many pharmaceutical companies positioning themselves to reap large profits by the exploitation of the ocean's rich chemical diversity. Targeted strategies, often in combination with high-throughput screening, are being employed in this hunt for novel pharmacotherapeutic agents. David de Vries and Phil Beart examine the potential, problems and technologies of an international pharmaceutical search that has important ethical considerations.