(Oops, your posts showed up after I started writing my response, sorry.)
Mad2, thank you for those posts. The first, the more detailed, is more factually correct precisely because it IS more detailed, but also because the mechanism of action is described incorrectly in the second article. It really doesn't block the virus per se, as I pointed out. Rather, "T" supplies a decoy - it may sound like a block but in a biochemical sense it is a much less effective deterrent.
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Important points:
1. The study was sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Ridgefield, Conn. -- the company that makes the drug. The firm has been studying the drug since 1994.
2. Boehringer Ingelheim has backed off. He says, ''At this point, we're stalled.'' A spokeswoman for the company, Pam DeMala, says that the development of the drug has been put on hold, because other compounds being developed by the firm showed more potential...
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Basically, as you say, much more primitive. I hope this proves that the market is ready for something that works as a nasal spray directly at the site of action.
Also, I have to concur about the timing. No doubt that it would do GUMM and Gel Tech little good to advertise prior to the cold season. I think they will want to step up their advertising WHEN PEOPLE ARE MORE LIKELY TO BUY THE PRODUCT, NOT JUST THE STOCK. Sorry for shouting, but it is an important point for us long termers <g>.
At what point the New England Journal runs the Zicam study, if it is accepted, is clearly the whim of that journal and may not happen for a few months. These things take time and the medical journals, while they do indeed like their publicity and "hype" of sorts, do NOT compete with each other on a daily or weekly basis in the same way the Boston Globe might compete with the Herald (similar stories, different headlines).
Finally, I would reiterate that I think it does show that there is interest in this mechanism of action (in the nasal passages - the site of infection) and working at the "local" cellular level with ICAM-1. |
