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Abstract
The marine environment has been shown to provide a source of great diversity of chemical structures with promising biological activities. A growing number of these compounds are entering clinical trials and thus, the impact of this field on the biomedical industry is increasing. The majority of recent patents discussing marine natural products have focused on the discovery of antitumour agents with the antiviral and anti-inflammatory areas receiving significantly less attention. The phylum Porifera is the source of the greatest number of metabolites described in recent patents. The review is organised phylogenetically and will provide a description of the patent literature in the field of marine natural products focussing on the period 1996 to April 1999.
