Big News Network.com Tuesday 6th July, 2004

A shrub in eastern Canada that yields the cancer drug paclitaxel has become the newest target of thieves, who beat legitimate harvesters to the cull.

The shrub is called ground hemlock, also known as eastern yew, and is plentiful on forested land. A derivative of the shrub is the active ingredient in the commercial drug Taxol.

Drug makers have signed deals with hundreds of landowners to send harvesters into the woods to reap the crop, but often, all of the small evergreen shrubs have been plucked by the time the harvesters arrive, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said Tuesday.