Treyfish
Moderator
New method shortens production time for human, bird flu drug
07/12/2008 (CNA)
Taipei, July 11 (CNA) Academia Sinica, Taiwan's leading research institution, announced Friday that its research team that developed a new drug to treat human and bird flu viruses last year has discovered a new method to shorten the production time for the drug.
Academia Sinica indicated in a news release that the new method used by the team at its Genomics Research Center has eliminated eight steps in the production process and shortened the production time to 14 days from one and a half months.
The drug, called Tamiphosphor, a compound of cyclohexene phosphonate, is essentially similar to Tamiflu, an oral medicine developed by F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. of Switzerland that targets flu viruses, except that the carboxyl group in Tamiflu has been replaced with the phosphonate group.
Experiments indicate that Tamiphosphor is more effective than Tamiflu but does not have the latter's side effects.
The development of Tamiphosphor has been acclaimed by the internationally renowned chemical journal, Angewandte Chemie.
The research team is hoping that Tamiphosphor can be marketed in less than five years as another oral anti-influenza drug.
The teams's members include Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey, National Taiwan University chemistry professor Fang Jim-min, and postdoctoral research fellow Shie Jiun-jie.
The new production method is also safer because it does not use sodium azide -- a chemical compound which is not only explosively reactive, but also extremely toxic -- in the synthesis of Tamiphosphor as is the case in the production process for Tamiflu.
Academia Sinica pointed out that ever since the first highly pathogenic H5N1 virus was isolated in 1996, human avian flu cases have been reported throughout the world.
Currently there are four kinds of drugs that treat influenza. Two of them -- Amantadine and Rimantadine -- can result in severe side effects.
Relenza is a nasal spray, while Tamiflu, a more popular oral drug, was suspected of causing several teenage patients in Japan to suffer from mental disorders and hallucinations in March last year, although F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. denied the allegation. :tiphat: http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=126741&ctNode=45
07/12/2008 (CNA)
Taipei, July 11 (CNA) Academia Sinica, Taiwan's leading research institution, announced Friday that its research team that developed a new drug to treat human and bird flu viruses last year has discovered a new method to shorten the production time for the drug.
Academia Sinica indicated in a news release that the new method used by the team at its Genomics Research Center has eliminated eight steps in the production process and shortened the production time to 14 days from one and a half months.
The drug, called Tamiphosphor, a compound of cyclohexene phosphonate, is essentially similar to Tamiflu, an oral medicine developed by F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. of Switzerland that targets flu viruses, except that the carboxyl group in Tamiflu has been replaced with the phosphonate group.
Experiments indicate that Tamiphosphor is more effective than Tamiflu but does not have the latter's side effects.
The development of Tamiphosphor has been acclaimed by the internationally renowned chemical journal, Angewandte Chemie.
The research team is hoping that Tamiphosphor can be marketed in less than five years as another oral anti-influenza drug.
The teams's members include Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey, National Taiwan University chemistry professor Fang Jim-min, and postdoctoral research fellow Shie Jiun-jie.
The new production method is also safer because it does not use sodium azide -- a chemical compound which is not only explosively reactive, but also extremely toxic -- in the synthesis of Tamiphosphor as is the case in the production process for Tamiflu.
Academia Sinica pointed out that ever since the first highly pathogenic H5N1 virus was isolated in 1996, human avian flu cases have been reported throughout the world.
Currently there are four kinds of drugs that treat influenza. Two of them -- Amantadine and Rimantadine -- can result in severe side effects.
Relenza is a nasal spray, while Tamiflu, a more popular oral drug, was suspected of causing several teenage patients in Japan to suffer from mental disorders and hallucinations in March last year, although F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. denied the allegation. :tiphat: http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=126741&ctNode=45