[ad_1]
The Israeli pharmaceutical company Zion Medical, which recently announced the successful completion of a first clinical trial on what they have called a potential treatment for HIV, has released a new statement on Twitter stating clearly that new tests will be necessary, as well as their official results. should be published and peer reviewed.
Since the announcement made by the company on Oct. 31, social media has aroused great excitement, as people are demanding more information about the "potential cure".
According to the World Health Organization, by the end of 2017, about 36.9 million people in the world were living with HIV.
In a statement at the time, Zion Medical announced the results of the first clinical trial of its HIV drug, Gammora, which eliminated up to 99% of the IH virus in the world. 39, four weeks of treatment.
Nine HIV-infected patients participated in "Part I and II" of the trial at Dr. Ronald Bata Memorial Hospital in Entebbe for 10 weeks.
But society has acted to temper expectations, say on Twitter"We would like to thank everyone for their interest in the promising results of our first clinical trial, and, like you, we hope that #Gammora will one day offer those affected by #HIV a viable way to get rid of cancer." Infection, there is still much to be done in this mission, including additional testing, publication of results, and the steps needed to make #Gammora available commercially.
"We are not there yet, but we are a step forward, full of hope – and determined to keep you informed of our progress."
The company also acknowledged that the official results should be peer reviewed in a scientific journal, which it hopes to have done by early 2019.
Long process
Professor Adrian Puren, head of the HIV Surveillance and Seromolecular Diagnosis Section at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), told Health24 that a lengthy process needed to be followed before it was over. be bold enough to call the drug a potential. cure.
"You have to go through several steps to prove something like this: doing the research, gathering the evidence, and gathering all that is needed to look for potential is important.
"There are different phases that you will have to go through too, you may have to do a test on animals, and then a little test on the man – the process is complex and you may have to start very small and run several tests in order to: Determine that the drugs are not toxic and that there are no harmful side effects.
"You also need to test the effectiveness of the drug at different stages, going through the different phases of testing, at some point you also need to perform random testing to eliminate the bias of the research and to to really make sure people are not involved. " to be hurt.
"Going through something like this is not easy.It is very complex, it needs to be detailed and it's quite expensive.If I had to look at this drug, I would like to see the published literature and can be traced back to the authors, knowing that everything has been reviewed.
"Once all the research has been done, reviewed and reviewed by all regulatory authorities, various ethics committees and adequately monitored, a company will be able to make such a statement." And when it will make announcements like this they usually do at major conferences, "said Puren.
Dr. Yogan Pillay, Deputy Director General of the Department of Health for HIV / AIDS, Tuberculosis and the Health of Mothers, Children and Women, added: "To our knowledge, there is no no clinical trials have been published on this subject.
"Unless it is published in peer-reviewed journals and the World Health Organization has approved this drug, we can not take this statement seriously."
Quackery
On Tuesday, a leading scientist specializing in HIV / AIDS criticized the "cure", widely criticized on social media, as a "quack".
"The world of HIV has seen quackery in different forms for decades – unfortunately, it feels even more so," said Professor François Venter of the Institute of Reproductive Health and HIV at Health-e News. from the University of Witwatersrand.
He said baderting that the drug was a potential cure without side effects was an "exaggerated biological claim that appears in public before the official literature". [is published] and must be viewed with deep skepticism ".
"I've looked at the press report and the company's unsophisticated website.Even if you believe their claims, they will not be tested in many years," Venter said.
Zion Medical is a relatively new company, established in 2014. According to the company's website, it is developing AIDS and cancer-based products based on HIV-derived peptides and targeted lentivirus particles.
Its partners include the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Sinai Hospital in New York (United States) and Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, among others.
Until now, all of Health24's attempts to contact Zion Medical directly for further comments have been unsuccessful – not all forms of email could have been distributed due to the fact. an invalid email address and all phone calls went unanswered.
[ad_2]
Source link
