Startling Revalations about the Cleveland Clinic that did the recent 2003 study on Zicam
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Philadelphia Magazine
> 3/3/99
>
> THE ZINC PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN
>
coldcure.com
> "It didn't. In a double-blind study, Macknin found
> that Cold-Eeze reduced the duration of cold
> symptoms by 42 percent over a placebo, almost
> exactly duplicating Godfrey's results. The day the
> study came out, a CNN crew visited Macknin's
> clinic. He dutifully held up a box of Cold-Eeze on
> camera. "When we broke the code" and learned
> the results, he told 20/20, "I got chills."
>
> "Three weeks later, a cold wind blew his way:
> The papers reported that Macknin owned a
> substantial amount of Quigley stock, which had
> shot from less than a dollar in July 1996 to more
> than $30 six months later-- riding the zinc craze
> his study had helped to ignite. That was
> embarrassing enough, although the clinic says the
> transaction had been cleared with its lawyers.
> Then, in September 1996, as Macknin was
> beginning a second study of Cold-Eeze in
> children, the Cleveland Clinic sent a draft royalty
> agreement to the Quigley Corporation, seeking a
> percentage of Cold-Eeze sales. Quigley says he
> rejected the idea as a blatant conflict of interest
> that would taint Cleveland's research. "Once that
> comes out, you've got no study, in my opinion,"
> he notes."
>
> "A Cleveland Clinic spokesman says he can't
> recall who initiated royalty discussions, Cleveland
> or Quigley, but adds, "Such an agreement would
> never have survived institutional review. We
> don't do that." The document was generated, he
> explains, at a lower level of the organization.
> "Researchers should not have a vested interest in
> the outcome of their studies," says Penn
> bioethicist Arthur Caplan. However, he notes,
> money is "a driving force in biomedical research,"
> and such arrangements are by no means rare."
>
> "To everyone's shock, this second study came out
> negative: Zinc had no effect on colds in children.
> Only then, Quigley says, did he realize the study
> hadn't been carried out properly: Many of the
> patients had asthma, bronchitis or allergies, and
> several were taking other medications. Under the
> agreed-on protocol, he argues, 83 of the 249
> study subjects should have been withdrawn from
> the analysis, leaving only those who suffered
> from bona fide common colds and had been
> properly treated with zinc alone. (In fact, the first
> study had included anyone with cold symptoms.)"
>
> "A spokesman for the Cleveland Clinic counters
> that Quigley sought to change the protocol after
> the study was underway. The disagreement led to
> a showdown in Pittsburgh between Quigley
> Corporation lawyers and Cleveland Clinic
> lawyers that Quigley lost: The study was
> published in JAMA on June 24th, sending the
> stock plummeting."
>
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216.239.41.104
New Study Proves Effectiveness of ZICAM in people who begin treatment within first 2 days of illness
New research conducted by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, one of the world's largest and most prestigious health centers, again confirms the efficacy of Zicam Cold Remedy. This clinical study demonstrated that Zicam reduced the severity and duration of common cold symptoms even when treatment is started as late as the second day after onset of illness. The study appeared in the January 2003 issue of QJM: An International Journal of Medicine.
This research is important because it demonstrates that Zicam can still reduce the duration of the common cold even when busy cold sufferers can't or don't start using Zicam within the first 24 hours of illness. Previous research studies all initiated treatment within the first 24 hours of symptoms.
For Full Study Click Here (PDF 112 KB)
Adobe Acrobat 5.0 Required.
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