celery product as Vioxx alternative

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BioActives markets celery product as Vioxx alternative

 

 

14/10/2004 - Worcester-based BioActives is using the recent withdrawal

from the market of Merck's Vioxx to try and direct consumers suffering

from arthritis towards its concentrated celery-seed fraction,

suggesting it could be a safe, natural alternative to the now banned drug.

 

Concentrated celery seed-fraction is based on a proprietary process

that extracts phthalides (butylphthalide, sedanenolide and sedanolide)

from celery seeds, said the company, adding that clinical tests have

suggested that phthalides may have an effect on pain, increase

mobility, and establish an increased sense of well-being.

 

" Celery seeds have historically been used in Ayurvedic and traditional

Chinese medicine as a diuretic tranquilizer, anti-spasmodic, nerve

tonic, and anti-rheumatic, " said Daniel Kagan, president of BioActives.

 

The phthalides in celery seeds appear to act to restore the balance in

the body's prostaglandin system – one of the most important chemical

control systems in the body that regulates inflammation, pain, and

swelling.

 

BioActives concentrated celery seed-fraction is available to

manufacturers and marketers of nutraceuticals in two forms: powder for

hard capsules or oil for incorporation into softgels.

 

Companies should be using the Vioxx withdrawal to increase visibility

of their products, according to Sheldon Baker, senior partner of

California-based communications firm the Baker Dillon Group.

 

" Major manufacturers should have stepped up to the plate and

immediately produced an educational campaign through broadcast and

print media to inform consumers about the healthy alternatives for

inflammation and overall immune function, " Baker said in a release.

 

" The dietary supplement industry has to enhance and increase its

marketing efforts to educate consumers about safe natural alternatives

to drugs, " added Baker.

 

Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market at the end of September after

results from a long-term study suggested the drug could increase a

patient's risk of suffering serious cardiovascular problems, including

heart attacks and strokes. In 2003 the drug made $2.5 billion in sales

in the US alone.

 

" Although the risk that an individual patient would have a heart

attack or stroke related to Vioxx is very small, the study that was

halted suggests that, overall, patients taking the drug chronically

face twice the risk of a heart attack compared to patients receiving a

placebo, " said Dr Lester Crawford, acting FDA commissioner.

 

The FDA had approved Vioxx in 1999 for the reduction of pain and

inflammation caused by osteoarthritis, as well as for acute pain in

adults and for the treatment of menstrual pain.

 

Dr William Judy commented to NutraIngredientsUSA.com last week that he

thought government bodies would henceforth force more long-term trials

to be carried out on drugs and supplements in the light of Vioxx's

removal.

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