Posted on 01/11/2011 10:16:00 PM PST by neverdem
The pharmaceutical company Sirtris announced last month that it had halted the last of its clinical trials of resveratrol, the minor ingredient of red wine that some researchers see as a drug that can extend life.
The decision signifies an apparent divergence of views on the merits of resveratrol between the current head of the company, which was bought by GlaxoSmithKline in 2008 for $720 million, and its founders.
George Vlasuk, Sirtris’s chief executive, said in an interview last week that SRT501, Sirtris’s formulation of resveratrol, “was not an important part of the acquisition of Sirtris by GSK.” Resveratrol has several features that make it unsuitable as a drug, he said. These include the fact that it is hard to maintain a consistent level of resveratrol in the bloodstream and that it seems to have different effects at different doses.
Resveratrol is thought to work in humans by activating a protein called SIRT1, but at some doses it actually inhibits SIRT1, Dr. Vlasuk said.
In addition, from a commercial point of view, resveratrol is a natural substance and not patentable.
Glaxo’s purchase of Sirtris, Dr. Vlasuk said, was more because the company afforded an entry into a new research field, and had developed several small, synthetic, patentable chemicals that mimic resveratrol in activating SIRT1. SIRT1 is thought to extend life in mice fed low-calorie diets, and researchers...
--snip--
Sirtris has completed three clinical trials with its synthetic resveratrol-mimicking drugs and will announce the results next year. These drugs work fairly specifically on SIRT1, unlike resveratrol, which also affects many other processes in the cell. “We have much more confidence that we are targeting SIRT1 and that it’s an important target. Resveratrol is not that important any more,” Dr. Vlasuk said...
--snip--
Humans have seven sirtuins, all with different roles...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
We'll see.
Another reason to stop trails... if it works, it will be rough on Social Security!
Well, I have heard the anti-aging hype for years, but remembering what I have learned as a Christian, and what other religious orders outside Christianity can also attest to, is that death, old age, and suffering are simply an inevitable component of the human physique. Is there anything special about a need for some expensive 6 to 1 year boost to your life, when loads of people in Africa can hardly feed their own families simply because they have to plant, till, and pick their food by hand? One can pursue eternal life, as various poems from Gilgamesh, to the words of God to Moses, Adam, and others simply stated that everyone has a limit to their lives on Earth, they should live it as best they can with the limited time that they have to live their mortal lives.
Whether people live to the age of Methuselah or of early American pioneers, they’ll die — and so what? this does not in the least vitiate the God-given role of the physician.
And there is the real reason - couldn't get the money pot.
Anything they can't alter enough to patent, they either give up on or try to denigrate or even outlaw it - especially if it might drain money from one of their patented drugs.
“Keeps out the alpha rays, Max. You don’t get old.”
Nice bottle.
Sirtris has completed three clinical trials with its synthetic resveratrol-mimicking drugs and will announce the results next year. These drugs work fairly specifically on SIRT1, unlike resveratrol, which also affects many other processes in the cell. “We have much more confidence that we are targeting SIRT1 and that it’s an important target. Resveratrol is not that important any more,” Dr. Vlasuk said...
They "created something better" - which they can patent - and are moving on with that instead of natural resveratrol. The top of the story seems to be somewhat misleading in that they don't seem to have abandoned the anti-aging research, but rather use a synthetic drug instead of the natural product.
Maybe the firm was bought out specifically to be able to STOP all major research on reversatol
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100722145156.htm
The quest continues.
“resveratrol is a natural substance and not patentable.
And there is the real reason - couldn’t get the money pot.
Anything they can’t alter enough to patent, they either give up on or try to denigrate or even outlaw it - especially if it might drain money from one of their patented drugs.”
Correct. That’s the money quote.
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