FUNDACOFAN is a NGO created in the 2001 by a trans-disciplinary team of professionals with a vast experience in investigation, teaching, production, marketing and the services associated to the pharmaceutical industry and of natural products whose mission is to generate sustainable development in the communities of Colombia, especially those of the Region of the Pacific, by means of the investigation of the biodiversity with emphasis in the medicinal plants and its by-products, promoting the productive chains and the company creation
In Colombia, the etno-botanical studies indicate that of the 40.000 existent native plants in the territory, approximately 6000 have been used millennially as medicinal by 85 prehispanic ethnic groups and the great majority of them, together with those introduced, they are used at the moment by the communities rural peasants, black and indigenous.
The country has not taken advantage of this comparative advantage in spite of the tendency to the growth of the national and international demand, since in accordance with the National Institute of Surveillance of Medications and Foods - INVIMA -, 11 native plants are legally only officially validated and allowed its commercialization like fito-therapeutic products.
Analyzing this situation, FUNDACOFAN has identified the holes that impede the development of the sector, mainly which are related with the fito-improvement, the agriculture-technology, the scientific validation (pre-clinic, clinic, fito-chemistry...) and the technology of extracts standardized in medicinal plants.
Therefore, we work advancing actions to solve these problems, coordinating efforts among the different actors of the productive chain, involving investigation institutions and government entities, with the purpose of to motivate the production and to guarantee the access to natural medications and other by-products of good quality for the internal consumption and the export, assuring the fair trade for producers and consumers, in benefit of the development of the communities of the country. |
