.
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- New
Drug
Successful
in Sickle
Cell
Treatment
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A
new study suggests that
the herbal remedy
Niprisan™ may be safe
and effective for the
treatment of sickle cell
anemia, a genetic blood
disorder that causes
organ damage and
episodes of severe pain.
Niprisan™ is an herbal
medicine developed by
the National Institute
for Pharmaceutical
Research and Development
in
Abuja
,
Nigeria
.
Niprisan™ is a
freeze-dried preparation
of an indigenous pepper
(Piper guineense)
seed, caprium (Pterocarpus
osun (L.)) stem, clove
(Syzygium aromaticum
(L).) bud, and sorghum
leaves. Eighty-two
patients with sickle
cell anemia were
randomly assigned to
receive Niprisan™ or
placebo for 12 months.
Patients taking Niprisan™
experienced
significantly fewer
episodes of severe pain
compared to those taking
placebo. No serious side
effects were observed.
Liver enzyme function
and renal function
remained normal during
Niprisan™ therapy, a
good indicator of
safety. Although the
researchers acknowledge
that further studies are
needed to confirm their
findings, they
"make the
preliminary conclusion
that Niprisan™ is a
safe and [effective]
phytomedicine for the .
. . management of
patients with sickle
cell disorder."
On
July
18, 2002
,
Xechem International,
Inc. signed an exclusive
worldwide license for
the manufacturing,
marketing, distribution
and sales of NIPRISAN™
from the National
Institute of Pharmaceutical
Research and
Development, government
of
Nigeria
,
for the treatment of
Sickle Cell Disease.
NICOSAN™ is
Xechem’s name for the
non-toxic phyto-pharmaceutical
product formerly named
NIPRISAN™.
Xechem is
currently in the process
of completing for
submission of an
Investigational New Drug
Application for this
product to the United
States Food and Drug
Administration
("FDA").
Currently,
there does not exist an
FDA approved (or
equivalently regulatory
approved) drug for
managing sickle cell
anemia. Xechem's
revolutionary new
product, manages the
disease in protecting
red blood cells against
sickling, and acts in
reversing sickled red
blood cells.
Professor Nwosu, the
Nigerian Minister of
health believes that
transferring its rights
to NIPRISAN™
"will guarantee the
availability of this
product in the
international market for
the benefit of those in
need worldwide."
According to Xechem's
President and CEO, Dr,
Ramesh C. Pandey,
"We at Xechem feel
honored to be able to
make this important new
drug product available
to the millions of
people around the world,
who in the past have had
simply no way of
managing this genetic
sickle cell anemia
disease.
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