Quick disclaimer: Some of you may be familiar with me as I am on many threads, some of you may already be aware that I am a pharmacist (albeit a young pharmacist and only for the past year have I been registered, however have finished the hard yards thankfully). I do not care whether you believe me or not, just that you at least understand that my point of view comes from a background of health/science. This does not mean that I know everything, in fact I am learning new stuff all the time and I am happy to be corrected.
Hi all,
I would like to offer my view on these results as I have been waiting for these results for a fair amount of time since first hearing MXC were using terpenes (Artemisinin is a terpene derived from Artimsinin Annua) to trial on treating COVID19 patients.
Terpenes have been know to have significant antiviral activity since the SARs/MERS outbreaks and haven't really had much work on them since then, COVID19 has recently brought these back to the forefront of research also likely the decreased stigma around CBD/cannabis, MXC is one of the first companies that I am aware of in the world to be taking a terpene formulation into phase II trials.
This in itself is a big milestone and I am sure many big pharma companies will be keen to see how this plays out. Not only could this act as a treatment for inflammation/cytokine storms this will open up the world of terpenes to many other chronic inflammatory conditions.
The fact that it is a nutraceutical product means it is already approved for sale and lots of regulatory processes will be easier to get through should this product prove further positive results in October. Great news for anyone looking to license or sell this should it be necessary.
Firstly to clear up any uncertainty and to stop people claiming "but its only 10 people!!" the trial results are interim. (for those unfamiliar with what this means; interim essentially means a sample of complete results from an in progress trial)
Whilst the results are interim, the results confirm and reiterate data from a substantial library of historical studies and data that support what MXC is attempting to replicate here. This is nothing that was unexpected, in fact this result should have been expected by any who did the research on it, and why I believe MXC sounds very confident that these positive results will be replicated in further participants in the trial.
They are proving in this trial, this combination of ingredients is; - Safe/tolerable/non-toxic - Shows efficacy/activity in reducing inflammation pain - Effective based on FDA parameters of an ideal treatment for COVID19 - reduce pain after after treatment course
This "cytokine storm" is one of the more severe symptoms of COVID19 and can result in death or ventilation requirements. Having something that can potentially treat this is HUGE, do not underestimate this.
Whoever suggested that the reduction of pain through this trial was a joke and that panadol/nurofen could be used instead clearly do not understand the very real fact that people who have contracted covid19 can often be left with scarring, troubled breathing, chronic inflammation and discomfort associated with having contracted this disease. This can be hard for those who havent had the virus or those who have had no issues from it to understand but this is a very real issue and to have something that might be able to reduce this is huge.
Not to mention the other potential pathway this opens up for other chronic inflammatory diseases such as COPD (this is outside of this topic though)
Some people also were trashing the fact that the trials were being taken in Israel ... This is probably one of the dumbest arguments I've read today, not going to comment much on that. These articles below highlights that plus mentions how effective terpenes have been recorded in reducing inflammation.
