Singapore firm tests traditional Chinese stroke drug

[attilio]

Hi all,

Taken from: http://beta.malaysia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070925/tap-singapore-health-stroke-c3bb44c.html

SINGAPORE, Sept 25 - Singapore-based drug firm Moleac, which has turned a traditional Chinese medicine into a treatment for stroke patients, said it would launch a clinical trial for the product in October.

NeuroAid, which is made up of a mixture of 14 extracts and includes plants such as red sage and milkvetch roots, is currently sold in China, and in Singapore as an alternative medicine for stroke patients, a spokeswoman for the firm said.

If the clinical trial is successful, NeuroAid would be recognised as a drug and sold in major markets including Europe and the United States, the spokeswoman said.

Traditional Chinese medicine is regarded as an alternative medicine in the West, although in China it is a key mode of modern health care.

Today, the only treatment available for Ischemic stroke -- the most common kind of stroke caused by a clot or other blockage disrupting the flow of blood to the brain -- is the clot-buster t-PA, but it has to be given within 3 hours and less than 5 percent of stroke victims get it.

Other stroke drugs have failed trials. German biotech firm Paion AG and its U.S. partner Forest Laboratories 's experimental stroke treatment failed in May while AstraZeneca's stroke drug NXY-059 flopped last year.

Moleac, set up in 2002 and part of Singapore's drive for a biomedical industry, told Reuters in an interview last year that it expected to sell NeuroAid in Europe and the U.S. this year [ID:nSIN262514].

[attilio]

Further news on this story.

Taken from: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/302169/1/.html

SINGAPORE : 880 stroke patients in Singapore will be involved in the biggest ever clinical trial conducted on a stroke recovery medicine.

They will be recruited to test a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) called NeuroAid.

The trial, supported by the National Medical Research Council, is targeting 1,100 patients from several stroke centres across southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Thailand and possibly Hong Kong.

In Singapore, at least four restructured hospitals will be invited to take part, with Changi General Hospital being the first one to conduct the tests next month.

Patients will be recruited within 48 hours of suffering a stroke.

Developed in China, NeuroAid is sold here as a Chinese proprietary medicine to support neurological functions. In other countries, it is marketed as a food supplement or a natural medicine.

Singapore sees about 10,000 stroke patients a year.

The two-year study will be carried out by the CHIMES Society, which is a non-profit multinational academic society, comprising doctors and stroke specialists.

CHIMES Society's Vice Chairman, Professor Marie-Germaine Bousser, who is also Head of Neurology at Lariboisiere Hospital in France said: "Recent drug trials in the acute treatment of stroke have, unfortunately, all been negative.

"It is thus very exciting to take a completely new approach and to scientifically test it in different populations."