"Many of the medicines currently on the market originally came from natural sources -- but terrestrial ones. Nobody has yet searched systematically in the oceans and there is a big opportunity there since they contain 75 percent of the world's living species," he said.
"There is no reason to think that the sea cannot provide us with as good medicine as the land has done before."
Modern techniques for analysing chemicals found in marine organisms are helping in the hunt and big pharmaceutical companies are starting to pay attention.
Zeltia in August signed Europe's second biggest biotech marketing deal ever for its cancer drug ET-743 with US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson, worth more than US$100 million.
Other "big pharma" companies are also developing promising early-stage compounds.
Switzerland's Novartis AG is studying a product called discodermolide derived from a Caribbean sponge which may be 80 times more potent in killing cancer cells than Taxol, a chemotherapy for breast, ovarian and other cancers.
Eli Lilly and Co, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and American Home Products Corp are also examining marine anti-tumor products.
Outside the cancer field, scientists from the University of Mississippi announced earlier this year that several Pacific sponges produced alkaloids that could help fight malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.
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