Cairns Pets helped by rainforest drug

Some Cairns Pets participated in veterinary drug trials for the new cancer drug developed from the Rainforest tree, blushwood, with fantastic results.  The drug is used locally on solid tumors to cause the tumor to break down and be removed by the animal's own immune system.
The trial has been so successful, human trials may be fast tracked so that human patients can be helped also.  This is a great example of how veterinary medicine can help improve human health.
The product is not yet available for routine animal use but we have enquired and expect to be able to access the drug in late 2011.

Dallas McMillan
Cairns Veterinary Clinic 

Read Cairns Vet pet advice and Pet news on the web.

 

New hope as cancer drug developed on Tableland may be fast-tracked

• By Daniel Bateman
• From: The Cairns Post
• January 20, 2011 8:27AM

RESEARCHERS behind a potential cure for cancer being developed on the Tableland hope they may be able to test the drug on diseased patients earlier than expected.

Yungaburra-based pharmaceutical company QBiotics is on track to start human trials in the second half this year of EBC-46, a drug derived from a molecule in the seeds of the rainforest tree blushwood, cairns.com.au said.

The product has so far demonstrated a remarkable ability to treat a range of tumours in more than 200 dogs, cats and horses.

In some cases, deadly tumours in pets disintegrated within five to seven days of treatment.

It is believed the drug has the potential to treat skin, head, neck, breast and prostate cancers in humans.

The company raised $10 million last year to fund the human trials, which will be run in Australia.

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However it could still be some years before the product will be commercially available to patients.

A QBiotics spokesman said researchers are currently working with US based project managers who were helping them progress to clinical phase 1 trials on humans.

The US Food and Drug Administration recently allowed cancer drugs to be tested on diseased patients during the first clinical phase.

"This is excellent news for EBC-46, as the approach in the past has been to test new drugs on healthy patients only in clinical phase 1, with the drug not tested for efficacy against the target disease until clinical phase 2," the spokesman said.

However, obtaining FDA approval to roll the drug out is an expensive process, costing up to $500 million and requiring QBiotics to team up with a much larger pharmaceutical company.

EBC-46 is non-toxic to cells and works differently from most chemotherapy agents, stimulating a patient’s immune system into destroying the tumour.

The drug is also easy to administer, causing minimal trauma to patients.