Headline: Asensio & Co.: Zonagen's Vasomax Fast-Acting Claims Proven False and
Fraudulent
======================================================================
NEW YORK, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Asensio & Co. today issued the
following:
Zonagen Inc. (OTC-Bulletin Board: ZONA) claims its 40 mg phentolamine
pills are effective in treating male erectile dysfunction ("MED") because of
Vasomax's secret, new, fast acting formulation. Specifically, Zonagen claims
that it is Vasomax's fast action that causes Vasomax to work as a MED
treatment. These claims are false and completely absurd. First, Zonagen's
Vasomax patent application proves definitively that Vasomax contains nothing
secret or new. Nor is Vasomax mixed or manufactured in any new way.
Secondly, Vasomax is not fast acting. In fact, even accepting Zonagen's own
test results, Vasomax is by every measure much slower acting than standard
phentolamine.
Doctors R. Imhof, B. Garnier, L. Brunner, G. Keller and T. Roher conducted
a study titled "Human Pharmacology of Orally Administered Phentolamine." The
study was published as part of the Phentolamine Workshop and Symposium held in
London, England in November 1975. The investigations were performed in
collaboration with the Pharmacological Chemistry Section of Ciba-Geigy in
Basle and Paris. The objective of this detailed human-pharmacology study was
to measure the blood concentration and the excretion of orally administered
phentolamine. A comparison of this study and the Zonagen claims shows that
regular phentolamine is far more fast acting than Vasomax. Regular
phentolamine reached a maximum blood concentration of 33 ng/ml in 30 minutes.
Vasomax claims a level of 16.7 ng/ml in 30 minutes. Regular phentolamine
reached a blood concentration of over 20 ng/ml in 15 minutes. Vasomax claims
a level of 6.3 ng/ml in 15 minutes. Regular 45-year-old oral phentolamine
reaches much higher concentrations, much faster than Vasomax. In fact,
standard phentolamine's maximum concentration was more than twice that claimed
by Zonagen for its fast acting Vasomax formulation.
The contents of the Vasomax patent application already prove that Zonagen
has done nothing to phentolamine that in any way reformulates or changes the
pharmacology of phentolamine. The Imhof study provides even more direct and
specific proof that Zonagen's fast acting reformulation claims are entirely
false and untrue.
SOURCE Asensio & Company, Inc.
-0- 01/15/98
/CONTACT: Manuel Asensio of Asensio & Company, 212-702-8800/ |
