[paula_w]

Star puts $1m into UK drug research



Matthew Goodman


PHYTOPHARM, the quoted Cambridgeshire drug developer that makes products from medicinal plants, is to receive a $1.2m (£613,000) grant from the Michael J Fox Foundation to help to fund its research into treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

It will get money over two years to fund preclinical trials of Cogane, a treatment that helps to stimulate production in the brain of the protein GDNF, which is known to ease symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
Injecting GDNF into the part of the brain involved can be effective but is exceptionally risky. GDNF cannot be taken orally.

Cogane is being developed to bypass these hurdles and this funding will be used to research the most effective dosing of the drug.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle3215563.ece

paula

[lou_lou]

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From The TimesJune 23, 2005

Activists force review by Phytopharm broker

By Richard Irving
CANACCORD CAPITAL is reviewing its role as a broker to Phytopharm, one of Britain’s best known biotech companies, after animal rights extremists targeted one of the stockbroker’s top directors.

The City firm last night confirmed reports on an Animal Liberation Front (ALF) website claiming that an incendiary device had been left under the car of one its senior managers.

A spokesman for Canaccord told The Times last night that he would be in a position to clarify the company’s relationship with Phytopharm after 7am today.

The ALF website, which is understood to be supported by the Stop Huntingdon Against Cruelty organisation (Shac), said that it had targeted the Canaccord director because of links between his company’s client, Phytopharm, and Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).

“Canaccord are HLS customer Phytopharm’s biggest shareholders and have raised £10 million for them. Bad mistake. If you support or raise funds for any company associated with HLS, we will track you down, come for you and destroy your property by fire,” the website said.

A spokesman for Canaccord confirmed last night that a company director’s car had been firebombed on May 26. The spokesman also confirmed that the company’s Upper Brook Street offices had been targeted by Shac demonstrators several times late last month.

The website goes on to threaten the drug company, which specialises in developing new medicines from plants. “Phytopharm, get out of HLS or see your share price crash and your supporters’ property go up in flames,” it says.

However, it was not clear last night what links the company has with HLS. Phytopharm was developing a new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, based on a Chinese herbal medicine, alongside Yamanouchi Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese drug developer which is believed to have links with HLS. However, Yamanouchi terminated the partnership with Phytopharm in February.

New laws to prevent extremists from causing economic damage to companies connected with animal research come into effect on July 1 under the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act.

Aisling Burnand, chief executive of the Bio Industry Association, which spearheaded the effort to lobby the Government for new laws restricting animal extremists, said: “This was clearly not a peaceful protest. The new laws will afford greater protection to companies such as Canaccord. We need to ensure that the police have sufficient resources.”




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[lou_lou]

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...d.php?p=109225

with Cogane showed it to be neuroprotective against betya-amyloid and glutamate damage which contributes to Alzheimer's disease.

Cogane works by restoring levels of proteins that are altered in the ageing brain, returning them to levels observed in the young and could even help neural connections in the brain to grow back.

In pre-clinical trials, the drug reversed the decrease of neuronal growth factors as well as reversing neuronal degeneration shown in the ageing brain. If replicated in sufferers, these results could prove a massive breakthrough in treating Alzheimer's.

Cogane is one of Phytopharm's synthetic pharmaceutical molecules, but the company is best known for its products based on plant research.

Its most well-known drug in development is an obesity treatment based on Hoodiagordonii, a rare cactus native to the Kalahari Desert.

Unilever, the global foods giant, has bought exclusive worldwide rights to an appetite-suppressing compound extracted from the Hoodia gordonii plant, which has been developed by Phytopharm.

Unilever says the first new hoodia products are expected to reach the market in the next three years and may be marketed under the SlimFast brand or incorporated in other Unilever brands.

Phytopharm will receive initial payments of around 6.5 million from Unilever, out of a potential total of 21 million as well as royalties once the products go on sale.


http://www.pharmafocus.com/cda/focus...441164,00.html

[reverett123]

OK, I agree that decency dictates certain rules for anyone who claims to be civilized.

And I would agree that we, as superior beings, should respect the lab rat even while he slaughters the pups from a competitor's litter.

And I will assume that the brave fellow who put the incendiary is not hypocritical enough to use any animal derived products.

But do these nutcases not realize that babies and animals as well are being slaughtered every day in dozens of wars created and fed by real villains?

Seems like the waste of a perfectly good incendiary to me,,,,

[lou_lou]

if we are what we eat -

cant we eat or drink the Hoodiagordonii, a rare cactus native to the Kalahari Desert.

Hoodia is made from the same plant?

[paula_w]

That's what is different about cogane. I met these people at Bio last year - it's taken orally.

paula

[lou_lou]

Originally Posted by paula_w

That's what is different about cogane. I met these people at Bio last year - it's taken orally.

paula

orally is called eating it!
aloe vera is very healing I drink it all the time...

We could get some online and gather together and have a meal of
Hoodiagordonii... lets see is it edible -lol -they drink it like coffee!!!!
pass me a cup of hoodia ghobba...LOL?
you can order it as coffee! tea or pillsz! I'd rather drink it!
a picture of it -


Common names: Ghaap, bitterghaap, wildeghaap, Bobbejaanghaap, Ghobba, Hoodia Cactus. Hoodia gordonii is a conspicuous spiny cactus-like succulent with angular stems widespread from the Great Karoo (Parts of W. Cape) Tanqua Karoo and further north to Bushmanland (Mainly the N. Cape) and dry southern and central parts of Namibia. The genus Hoodia consist of 14 species mainly confined to South African and Namibia and with the exception of H. parviflora all are edible. The small flowered species were previously accommodated in the genus Trichocaulon. Most are refer to as Ghaap and were used as by the indigenous peoples as food or medicine. According to Smith (1966) in Common Names of South African Plants this species as a food and medicine was regarded as inferior to the true Trichocaulon (the small flowered Hoodia species). Nevertheless, Ghaap prior have been utilized by the indigenous Khoi and San people for food and medicine and later by the local white farmers. The largest of the species are Hoodia parviflora (leeughaap) an inedible species from northern Kaokoveld (N. Namibia).


you know some parts of a pine tree are edible too...
they eat bugs in korea etc...
aborigine people eat big white worms?

[lou_lou]

When I travelled to the Kalahari, I met families of the San bushmen.

It is a sad, impoverished and displaced tribe, still unaware they are sitting on top of a goldmine.

But if the Hoodia works, the 100,000 San strung along the edge of the Kalahari will become overnight millionaires on royalties negotiated by their South African lawyer Roger Chennells.

And they will need all the help they can to secure the money.

Currently, many bushmen smoke large quantities of marijuana, suffer from alcoholism, and have neither possessions nor any sense of the value of money.

The truth is no-one has fully grasped what the magic molecule means for their counterparts in the developed world.

Blood sugar

According to the British Heart Foundation 17% of men and 21% of women are obese, while 46% of men and 32% of women are overweight.

So the drug's marketing potential speaks for itself.

Phytopharm's Dr Richard Dixey explained how P.57 actually works:

"There is a part of your brain, the hypothalamus. Within that mid-brain there are nerve cells that sense glucose sugar.

"When you eat, blood sugar goes up because of the food, these cells start firing and now you are full.

"What the Hoodia seems to contain is a molecule that is about 10,000 times as active as glucose.

"It goes to the mid-brain and actually makes those nerve cells fire as if you were full. But you have not eaten. Nor do you want to."

Clinical trials

Dixey organised the first animal trials for Hoodia. Rats, a species that will eat literally anything, stopped eating completely.

When the first human clinical trial was conducted, a morbidly obese group of people were placed in a "phase 1 unit", a place as close to prison as it gets.

All the volunteers could do all day was read papers, watch television, and eat.

Half were given Hoodia, half placebo. Fifteen days later, the Hoodia group had reduced their calorie intake by 1000 a day.

It was a stunning success.

The cactus test

In order to see for ourselves, we drove into the desert, four hours north of Capetown in search of the cactus.

Once there, we found an unattractive plant which sprouts about 10 tentacles, and is the size of a long cucumber.

Each tentacle is covered in spikes which need to be carefully peeled.

The San will finally throw off thousands of years of oppression, poverty, social isolation and discrimination



Roger Chennells, lawyer


Inside is a slightly unpleasant-tasting, fleshy plant.

At about 1800hrs I ate about half a banana size - and later so did my cameraman.

Soon after, we began the four hour drive back to Capetown.

The plant is said to have a feel-good almost aphrodisiac quality, and I have to say, we felt good.

But more significantly, we did not even think about food. Our brains really were telling us we were full. It was a magnificent deception.

Dinner time came and went. We reached our hotel at about midnight and went to bed without food. And the next day, neither of us wanted nor ate breakfast.

I ate lunch but without appetite and very little pleasure. Partial then full appetite returned slowly after 24 hours.

The future

Mr Chennells is ecstatic:

"The San will finally throw off thousands of years of oppression, poverty, social isolation and discrimination.

"We will create trust funds with their Hoodia royalties and the children will join South Africa's middle classes in our lifetime.

"I envisage Hoodia cafes in London and New York, salads will be served and the Hoodia cut like cucumber on to the salad.

"It will need flavouring to counter its unpleasant taste, but if it has no side effects and no cumulative side-effects."

Unfortunately for the overweight, Hoodia will not be around for several years, the clinical trials still have several years to run.

Do not travel to the Kalahari to steal the plant as it is hard to find and illegal to export.

And beware internet sites offering Hoodia "pills" from the US as we tested the leading brand and discovered it has no discernible Hoodia in it.

So just be patient. Help is at hand.

transcript here
link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/h...s/03_06_01.txt

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[paula_w]

From Fox Foundation Database of awarded grants
Abstract
Effects of PYM50028 in Reversing Dopaminergic Neuronal Degeneration and Behavioral Impairments in Parkinson’s Disease

Therapeutics Development Initiative 2008
Objective/Rationale:

The objective of this project is to assess the effects of oral administration of Cogane™ in reversing the changes in the area of the brain involved in Parkinson’s disease and the associated movement disability using two pre-clinical models. In addition, this project will establish the therapeutic dose levels and duration of treatment that provide these benefits in these models to gain essential information on the appropriate dosing and design for a Phase II clinical study in Parkinson’s disease patients.

Project Description:

In the first study, Cogane™ will be administered orally every day for up to two months in an established pre-clinical model of Parkinson’s disease. Beneficial effects will be assessed by taking measurements of biochemical markers specific for the disease. The second study will use a more complex pre-clinical model of Parkinson’s disease. A range of doses of Cogane™ will be administered orally every day for up to 4 weeks and the levels of Cogane™ in the body will be measured. The third study using the same model will utilize the optimal dose of Cogane™, determined from the previous study, administered orally every day for up to 26 weeks. Beneficial effects will be assessed by taking measurements of biochemical markers and recording the movement disability characteristic of the disease.

Relevance to Diagnosis/Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease:

The body naturally produces proteins known as neurotrophic factors that stimulate the growth of nerves. In particular, one known as “GDNF” has been shown to re-grow damaged nerves in areas of the brain involved in Parkinson’s disease. Injection of GDNF in the brain showed beneficial effects in a small clinical study. Cogane™, which can be taken orally, stimulates the body to release GDNF and therefore has the potential to overcome many of the surgical difficulties associated with GDNF administration.

Anticipated Outcome:

This project will provide evidence on the ability of Cogane™ to reverse the changes in the area of the brain involved in Parkinson’s disease and the associated movement disability using pre-clinical models. In addition, this project will provide essential information on the appropriate dosing and design for a Phase II clinical study to assess the potential benefits of orally administered Cogane™ in Parkinson’s disease patients.

[Suffolkchris]

I live in the UK county of Suffolk only about 30 miles away from this company.
Will contact my Neurologist who is based in Cambridge to see if I can find out any more.

Chris