Health
Drug Company to Share Revenues With Indigenous People Who Donated Their Genes
When Stephane Castel first met with a group of Māori people and other Pacific Islanders in New Zealand to talk about his drug company’s plans for genetic research, locals worried he might be seeking to profit from the genes of community members without much thought to them.
Instead, Dr. Castel and his colleagues explained, they were aiming to strike an unconventional bargain: In exchange for entrusting them with their genetic heritage, participating communities would receive a share of the company’s revenues. Dr. Castel also vowed not to patent any genes — as many other companies had done — but rather the drugs his company developed from the partnership.
“A lot of people told us this was a crazy idea, and it wouldn’t work,” Dr. Castel said. But five years after that first conversation during an Indigenous health research conference in March 2019, Dr. Castel’s gambit is beginning to pay off for both parties.
On Tuesday, his company, Variant Bio, based in Seattle, announced a $50 million collaboration with the drugmaker Novo Nordisk to develop drugs for metabolic disorders, including diabetes and obesity, using data collected from Indigenous populations. Variant Bio will distribute a portion of those funds to the communities it worked with in nine countries or territories, including the Māori, and will seek to make any medicines that result from its work available to those communities at an affordable price.
Experts on Indigenous genetics said the deal was a positive step for a field that has been plagued by accusations of exploitation and a gulf of mistrust.
“In the past, researchers would enter Indigenous communities with empty promises,” said Krystal Tsosie, a geneticist and bioethicist at Arizona State University who runs a nonprofit genetic repository for Indigenous people. “Variant Bio is the only company, to the best of my knowledge, that has explicitly talked about benefit-sharing as part of their mission.”
The concept for Variant Bio was hatched in a Manhattan bar in August 2018 over drinks between Dr. Castel and Kaja Wasik, who had become friends during their graduate studies in genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island.
Though their laboratory research kept them under the glare of fluorescent lights, they shared a zest for international travel, which they indulged during backpacking trips together in Peru and Chile. They dreamed of building a company that could get them to remote places.
At the time, drugmakers were establishing partnerships with biological repositories such as UK Biobank, which contains biological samples and health records from a half-million people living in Britain, in order to hunt for associations between genes and disease.
But these databases are primarily made up of genes from people of European descent.
“What’s the value of sequencing the 500,001st British person?” Dr. Castel said. “There are only so many insights to find by studying the same group of people.”
He and Dr. Wasik were more enthusiastic about recent findings from underrepresented groups, such as the discovery of novel gene variants affecting metabolism that were first identified in Inuit populations in Greenland.
Such variants may be more common, and consequently easier to identify, in historically isolated populations because they confer some functional benefit to people with a certain diet or lifestyle, or simply because of chance events in their history. Yet they can also serve as promising drug targets that will help a wider swath of the global population.
With $16 million in seed funding from Lux Capital, a venture capital firm in New York City, Dr. Castel and Dr. Wasik quit their jobs and began working full-time for their startup. Dr. Wasik hopped across eight countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Pacific in the company’s first year, while Dr. Castel, for the most part, dutifully built their software platform from his base in the United States.
They enlisted ethical advisers to develop a benefit-sharing model and went on a listening tour. They knew from the get-go they would have to tread carefully.
In 2007, a member of the Karitiana tribe in Brazil told The New York Times that his community had been “duped, lied to and exploited” by scientists who had collected their blood and DNA, which was later sold for $85 per sample. The tribe members, who said they had been wooed with promises of medicines, received nothing.
Ten years later, there was still no consensus about the optimal way to conduct such work. To protect against so-called biopiracy, many countries ratified the Nagoya Protocol under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which requires the “equitable sharing of benefits” emerging from genetic resources. But the protocol excluded human genomic information.
During Dr. Castel’s and Dr. Wasik’s trip to New Zealand in 2019, the researchers and community members were troubled by a previous attempt by U.S. researchers to patent a test for obesity risk based on genetic studies carried out in Samoa. The researchers’ universities did not include their Samoan collaborators on their patent application as co-inventors, nor did they have formal benefit-sharing agreements in place with local institutions. (That patent application has since been abandoned, and the researchers said they always intended to share benefits with their partners.)
One of Variant’s first advisers was Keolu Fox, an outspoken geneticist at the University of California, San Diego, who had been harshly critical of the Samoan research.
“This is an extension of all these other forms of colonialism,” said Dr. Fox, who is Native Hawaiian and joined Dr. Wasik and Dr. Castel on their New Zealand outreach trip. He believed that Variant could lead by example.
In the company’s benefit-sharing program, up to 10 percent of a project’s budget goes toward community programs, typically by funding local organizations.
For example, as part of its New Zealand-based study into the genetic causes of kidney disease and other metabolic disorders in the Māori and other people of Pacific ancestry, the company spent $100,000 to fund several local health organizations along with scholarships and scientific conferences for Indigenous people.
“Before Variant came along, we didn’t do that because we couldn’t afford to do so,” said Tony Merriman, a gout expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who has collaborated with the company on two projects in the Pacific region.
Dr. Merriman said that he also appreciated that the company ensured that its findings were shared with the community. In French Polynesia, the company’s research has encouraged increased access to a gout medication after concluding that the local population did not have an elevated risk of a fatal drug reaction that had been observed in certain Asian populations.
The new Novo Nordisk deal kicks off a second, longer-term phase of the benefit-sharing program. Communities will share in a 4 percent slice of Variant’s revenue and, if the company is ever sold or goes public, 4 percent of its equity. That percentage is comparable to the royalties that universities receive for licenses to their patents.
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What if your New Year’s resolution could fit inside a tote bag? Social media users are trying the “analog bag” trend, replacing phones with offline activities.
The trend is widely credited to TikTok creator Sierra Campbell, who posted about her own analog bag — containing a crossword book, portable watercolor set, Polaroid camera, planner and knitting supplies — and encouraged followers to make their own.
Her video prompted many others to share their own versions, with items like magazines, decks of cards, paints, needlepoint and puzzle books.
CREATIVE HOBBIES KEEP THE BRAIN YOUNG, STUDY FINDS — HERE ARE THE BEST ONES TO PURSUE
“I made a bag of non-digital activities to occupy my hands instead of the phone,” said Campbell, adding that the practice has significantly cut her screen time and filled her life with “creative and communal pursuits that don’t include doom-scrolling.”
“I created the analog bag after learning the only way to change a habit is to replace it with another,” she told Fox News Digital.
Social media users are trying the “analog bag” trend, replacing phones with offline activities like cameras, notebooks and magazines. (Fox News Digital)
The science of healthier habits
Research on habit formation supports the idea of the analog bag, according to Dr. Daniel Amen, a California-based psychiatrist and founder of Amen Clinics.
“Your brain is a creature of habit,” Amen said during an interview with Fox News Digital. “Neurons that fire together wire together, meaning that every time you repeat a behavior, whether it’s good or bad, you strengthen the neural pathways that make it easier to do it again.”
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Studies show that habits are automatic responses to specific cues — such as boredom, stress or idle time — that typically deliver some kind of reward, according to the doctor. When no alternative behavior is available, people tend to fall back on the same routine, often without realizing it.
Research suggests that replacing an old habit with a new one tied to the same cue is more effective than trying to suppress the behavior altogether.
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“[When] cutting out coffee — you need to have another drink to grab for, not just quit cold turkey. It’s how the pathways in our brains work,” Campbell said.
By substituting a different routine that still provides stimulation and engagement, people can gradually weaken the original habit and build a new automatic response.
Substituting another activity instead of scrolling on your phone can help quell the impulse to reach for it. (iStock)
“Simply stopping a behavior is very challenging,” Amen said. “Replacing one habit with something that is better for your brain is much easier. That’s how lasting change happens, one step at a time.”
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If alternatives are within arm’s reach, people will be more likely to use them, the doctor said. “Your brain does much better with small, simple actions than big, vague intentions.”
Instead of saying, “I’ll stop scrolling today,” the doctor recommends choosing a small habit you can do in a few moments in specific situations, like knitting 10 rows of a scarf on your commute or reading a few pages of a book while waiting at the doctor’s office.
“If alternatives are within arm’s reach, you’re more likely to use them,” a brain doctor said. “Your brain does much better with small, simple actions than big, vague intentions.” (iStock)
Campbell shared her own examples of how to use an analog bag. At a coffee shop with friends, she said, she might pull out a crossword puzzle and ask others to help with answers when the conversation lulls.
Instead of taking dozens of photos on her phone, she uses an instant camera, which limits shots and encourages more intentional moments.
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In casual outdoor settings, such as a park or winery, she brings a small watercolor set for a quick creative outlet.
“It’s brought so much joy,” Campbell said of the analog bag trend, “seeing how it resonates with so many.”
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A deadly, drug-resistant fungus already spreading rapidly through U.S. hospitals is becoming even more threatening worldwide, though there may be hope for new treatments, according to a new scientific review.
Candida auris (C. auris), often described as a “superbug fungus,” is spreading globally and increasingly resisting human immune systems, Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) researchers said in a review published in early December.
The findings reinforce prior CDC warnings that have labeled C. auris an “urgent antimicrobial threat” — the first fungal pathogen to receive that designation — as U.S. cases have surged, particularly in hospitals and long-term care centers.
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Approximately 7,000 cases were identified across dozens of U.S. states in 2025, according to the CDC, and it has reportedly been identified in at least 60 countries.
Candida auris is a drug-resistant fungus spreading in hospitals worldwide. (Nicolas Armer/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
The review, published in Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, helps explain why the pathogen is so difficult to contain and warns that outdated diagnostics and limited treatments lag behind. It was conducted by Dr. Neeraj Chauhan of the Hackensack Meridian CDI in New Jersey, Dr. Anuradha Chowdhary of the University of Delhi’s Medical Mycology Unit and Dr. Michail Lionakis, chief of the clinical mycology program at the National Institutes of Health.
Their findings stress the need to develop “novel antifungal agents with broad-spectrum activity against human fungal pathogens, to improve diagnostic tests and to develop immune- and vaccine-based adjunct modalities for the treatment of high-risk patients,” the researchers said in a statement.
GROWING ANTIBIOTIC CRISIS COULD TURN BACTERIAL INFECTIONS DEADLY, EXPERTS WARN
“In addition, future efforts should focus on raising awareness about fungal disease through developing better surveillance mechanisms, especially in resource-poor countries,” they added. “All these developments should help improve the outcomes and prognosis of patients afflicted by opportunistic fungal infections.”
Candida auris can survive on skin and hospital surfaces, allowing it to spread easily. (iStock)
First identified in 2009 from a patient’s ear sample in Japan, C. auris has since spread to dozens of countries, including the U.S., where outbreaks have forced some hospital intensive care units to shut down, according to the researchers.
The fungus poses the greatest risk to people who are already critically ill, particularly those on ventilators or with weakened immune systems. Once infected, about half of patients may die, according to some estimates.
FLU BY STATE: WHERE THIS SEASON’S HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS VARIANT IS SPREADING THE MOST
Unlike many other fungi, C. auris can survive on human skin and cling to hospital surfaces and medical equipment, allowing it to spread easily in healthcare settings.
“It is resistant to multiple antifungal drugs, and it tends to spread in hospital settings, including on equipment being used on immunocompromised and semi-immunocompromised patients, such as ventilators and catheters,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone, previously told Fox News Digital.
Scientists say the unique cell wall structure of C. auris makes it harder to kill. (iStock)
It is also frequently misdiagnosed, delaying treatment and infection control measures.
“Unfortunately, symptoms such as fever, chills and aches may be ubiquitous, and it can be mistaken for other infections,” Siegel said.
In September, he said intense research was ongoing to develop new treatments.
Only four major classes of antifungal drugs are currently available, and C. auris has already shown resistance to many of them. While three new antifungal drugs have been approved or are in late-stage trials, researchers warn that drug development has struggled to keep pace with the fungus’s evolution.
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Despite the sobering findings, there is still room for cautious optimism.
The fungus can cling to skin and hospital surfaces, aiding its spread. (iStock)
In separate research published in December, scientists at the University of Exeter in England discovered a potential weakness in C. auris while studying the fungus in a living-host model.
The team found that, during infection, the fungus activates specific genes to scavenge iron, a nutrient it needs to survive, according to their paper, published in the Nature portfolio journal Communications Biology in December.
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Because iron is essential for the pathogen, researchers believe drugs that block this process could eventually stop infections or even allow existing medications to be repurposed.
“We think our research may have revealed an Achilles’ heel in this lethal pathogen during active infection,” Dr. Hugh Gifford, a clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter and co-author of the study, said in a statement.
New research is underway to develop better treatments and diagnostics for C. auris. (iStock)
As researchers race to better understand the fungus, officials warn that strict infection control, rapid detection and continued investment in new treatments remain critical.
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Health experts emphasize that C. auris is not a threat to healthy people.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the CDI researchers and additional experts for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Angelica Stabile contributed reporting.
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