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"PharmaPrinting": The Medical
Industrial Complex Wants Control of Your Herbs
copyright 1997 by John Hammell (Reproduction
Encouraged: Please Reprint Widely- Permission Given to Reprint
as Is)
In a matter directly related to the Codex International
Threat to Health Freedom, on December 4th, an alarming press
release came to my attention titled: "New Technology, Global
Initiative to Bring Herbal Medicines into Modern Medical Science
Announced by World Health Organization Today."
In the press release, the World Health Organization's
Collaborating Centre for Drug Monitoring announced a new technology
called "PharmaPrinting", which... "produces pharmaceutical versions
of herbal medicines that previously could not be standardized,
patented, clinically tested, approved by government agencies,
prescribed by doctors, nor reimbursed by governments or insurance
companies."
In other words, the World Health Organization,
and PharmaPrint, Inc. of Irvine, CA have announced to the world
in stark, Godlike fashion that they have just... "improved"...
upon the natural herbs which billions of people have used for
thousands of years with fantastic results. Read on for the gory
details of how this scam is being perpetrated, and learn what
must be done to fight back!
Merry Christmas, From The Medical
Industrial Complex: "We've Just Patented Mistletoe"
I first became aware of "PharmaPrint Inc." just
before Christmas when they announced the first patent ever issued
for successfully "bioprinting" and accurately replicating a mistle-toe
based compound called T4GEN. In this press release it was announced
that "mistletoe is already used on an unregulated basis" in the
treatment of some cancer and AIDS patients in Europe, but "previously
could not be pursued as a pharmaceutical because it could not
be patented, standardized, precisely dosed, and clinically tested
as a pharmaceutical for FDA approval."
The press release went on to say that "until
this patent, no multiple molecule herbal medicine has ever been
successfully patented as a pharmaceutical." Furthermore, the
press release stated that "Consumer Reports magazine estimates
that herbal medicines now being sold on an unregulated basis
through U.S. retail stores represent a $1.5 billion market growing
at more than 15 percent annually."
What Is So Called "PharmaPrinting"?
According to an industry trade report called
the F-D-C Tan Sheet (December 2, 1996), "PharmaPrinting uses
separation technologies such as HPLC, gas chromatography, electrophoresis
and two dimensional SDS PAGE and integrates these technologies
with in vitro bioactivity models such as L1210 cell inhibition." The
article goes on to say that the process takes "nine months to
complete."
So, "PharmaPrinting" is used to identify and
precisely measure the quantity of bioactivity of each active
compound in a botanically- derived medicine, and at the risk
of sounding like a neo-luddite, I question whether this knowledge
is really necessary for anyone to benefit from the healing properties
of herbs?
The F-D-C Tan Sheet (December 2, 1996) announced
a joint venture between PharmaPrint, Inc. and the University
of Miami to use so called "PharmaPrinting" to develop a pharmaceutical
version of a natural medicine derived from saw palmetto berry
extracts currently "being used on an unregulated basis to treat
benign prostate enlargement," the company noted. PharmaPrint
has also announced their intention to go after echinacea (for
cold and flu symptoms), ginkgo (for reducing memory loss), St.John's
Wort (for treatment of depression) valerian (as a sedative),
and tgugu lipid gum (for lowering cholesterol.)
I wonder how our Creator feels about these ambitious
commercial plans to wring every last ounce of profit from the
herbs of the world while the high cost of health care is breaking
the backs of the people of the earth?
Perhaps the owners and stockholders of so called "PharmaPrint,
Inc." will discover exactly how after they shuffle off this immortal
coil.
Traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange as PPRT,
in a November 11th analysts report, M.H. Myerson proclaimed PharmaPrint
to be a "strong buy" and predicted that by the year 2000, the
company would be generating revenues of "$104 millon." Furthermore,
the report stated that PharmaPrinting a botanical drug costs
approximately $500,000. and can be performed in six months, including
validating manufacturing under Good Manufacturing Practice guidelines
and filing for patent protection. Phase I/II clinical trials
cost an additional $1.5 million, and take an additional 18 months
to complete, while Phase III trials cost an estimated $5- $20
million, and require an estimated 2-3 years to complete.
The question, of course, is at who's expense
will this be done, and what does this portend for consumers of
natural herbal products and the natural products industry? After
the medical industrial complex spends billions to patent the
herbs of the world, won't they want to PROTECT their "investment" and
drive all natural products out of the marketplace? As reported
by Ron Birckhead in the April 1996 issue of Life Extension Magazine
("Update on the Codex Threat," p.32) this has ALREADY been happening
in the Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland,
due to the fact that these nations have been harmonizing their
domestic law with the World Health Organization's Guidelines
for Dietary Supplements, (which Birckhead states are very similar
to the German and Canadian Codex proposals which are currently
at step 5 of an 8 step finalization process. (Download M.H. Myerson's
stock report from http://www.mhmyerson.com)
W.H.O. Announces Global Campaign, L.E.F Announces
Resistance
At a briefing in Washington D.C. on December
4th, the WHO group announced a world wide effort to standardize
information about herbal medicines working with the University
of Exeter, U.K., and the Royal Botanic Gardens (known popularly
as Kew Gardens).
Professor Ivor Ralph Edwards, Director of Drug
Monitoring for the Collaborating Centre, said, "About 80 percent
of all therapies in use in many countries are made from herbs
according to tradition and experience, and most of these are
multi-molecule herbal medicines that previously could not be
standardized into pharmaceutical versions. As a result, it was
previously impossible to clinically establish whether or not
they perform as intended and some may even cause harm if used
incorrectly."
This announcement by WHO dovetails nicely with
the Canadian proposal for herbs which I reported on in my Codex
Report From Bonn, and in "Report From the Battlefield" which
appeared in the January and February issues of Life Extension
Magazine. (http://www.lef.org) It comes as no surprise to me
that the Canadian Research Council (CNRC) in Montreal has an
agreement with PharmaPrint, Inc. for developing standard operating
procedures for each of the manufacturing methods and validating
each of the processes used in bioprinting.
All of this is entirely consistent with the recent
pattern of the Canadian "Health Protection Branch" to require "DIN" or "Drug
Identification Numbers" on any herb or dietary supplement on
which even a shread of a claim is made. In an article titled "Identity
Crisis- The Growing Controversy Over Herbs in Canada" by Mary
Fran McQuade (Health Naturally, October/November 1996), an epic
battle over the control of herbs is brewing north of the border.
"Its shaping up to be an epic battle, a clash
of conflicting world views: scientific reductionism (taking a
thing apart and studying its individual parts) versus herbal
holism- the view that "if it works, regulate it" versus the view
that "if it works, lets use it."
Joel Thuna, of Ontario based Global Botanicals
reported in Health Naturally that "its illegal to bring in almost
anything"- yohimbe, horsetail, goldenseal, and pau d'arco are
just a few of the examples he cites.
In an article published in the October/November
issue of Health Naturally titled "Who Will Protect Us From the
Protectors" by Gorge Profonde, he states that the HPB "claims
to have sole authority to classify ANY substance as a drug. It
doesn't matter if that substance is safe, effective and honestly
promoted. It doesn't matter that it may have been used by millions
of people for thousands of years. It does not matter that the
HPB cannot produce a shread of evidence that anyone has ever
been harmed by it. If the HPB decides that ANY food extract or
herb is a drug, consumers lose. That product is either completely
removed from the market, or slowly regulated to death." (Gorge
Profonde is a pseudonym- the author fears retaliation from the
HPB.)
(For more information on Canadian regulation
contact Marie LeMaire, Special Advisor on Complementary Medicines
FAX 613-954-6511. For online information from The Drug Directorate:
http://hpb1.hwc:ca:8300/T126.xxx.html)
CHENEY AND YETLEY TEAM UP TO RIP-OFF CONSUMERS
AT CODEX MEETING
In my previous articles I reported that in early
October of 1996, at the Bonn meeting of the Committee on Nutrition
and Foods for Special Dietary Use of the Codex Alimentarius Commission,
Dr. Mary Cheney of Canada initially stated that Canada was backing
off from a proposal made two years previously at a Codex meeting
in Vancouver, and was no longer recommending that a negative
list be formed of herbal products to ban their international
sale, but she later reversed her position.
Cheney stated that Canada was backing off from
this position due to a "large volume of consumer complaints received
in Ottawa from Canadian citizens." Cheney went on to reverse
her position two days later (the meeting lasted 5 days) when
she stated: "This committee lacks the time and expertise necessary
to properly address the issue of a negative list for herbs, therefor
I propose the formation of a panel of experts from WHO/FAO who
can go on to address this issue if the Codex Executive Committee
approves funding for the expert panel when they meet in June." Given
the fact that Cheney failed to return any of my phone calls prior
to the Bonn meeting when I sought information on her position,
I was not surprised to observe this sort of duplicity.
Despite the fact that the American delegation
was supposed to be a working group in which our government rep
was supposedly interested in our views, the first person to raise
a hand to second Dr.Cheney was none other than Dr.Yetley of the
FDA. Yetley's hand shot up there without asking ANY of the other
American delegates, including me, what we thought of the Canadian
proposal. Are we all being railroaded?
(For information on the 20th Session of the Codex
Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Use see
ALINORM 97/26- FAO/WHO joint office Rome, Italy, FAX 6-5225-4593,
Tel. 52251. Next comments period deadline April 30, 1997.)
DON'T GET MAD! GET EVEN! HERES HOW:
Several things must be done to stop the sinister
plans of the medical industrial complex:
1. You must join and or contribute money to the
Life Extension Foundation. Reason: We are the only organization
in the world working to spearhead the formation of an international
coalition to monkeywrench the German and Canadian Codex Proposals.
We are actively alerting the dietary supplement
industry and consumers all over the world and have already catalyzed
the formation of an umbrella group in Canada to spearhead opposition
to the HPB.
We are working tirelessly to bring a public health
message to the world via radio, TV, the World Wide Web, and actual
visits to foreign countries in an effort to rally the people
of the world. This is expensive, time consuming, and draining.
Without your help, we can't keep doing it.
Currently, I have been operating a one man Political
Office here, working 80 plus hour weeks in an effort to sound
an alarm to the world. With money, we can hire more people. I
could easily put a staff of a dozen people or more to very good
use, but we need your active support in order for this dream
team to materialize. Please copy and reprint this article and
spread it far and wide.
Please visit our website for updates at http://www.lef.org.
Contact me via john@lef.org, or our main office via lef@lef.org
Call our main office to join at 800-841-LIFE, or 954-766-8433.
Send checks made out to Life Extension Foundation
to: NOCODEX!- Life Extension Foundation PO Box 229120, Hollywood,
FL 33022 USA. Please urge your local health food store and favorite
vitamin or herb company to donate money to us and to help spread
the word. If we don't hang together, we will soon be hanging
separately.
Beware of spin control, lies, and the misinformed-
for they are everywhere as people and companies sell out to the
medical industrial complex. Many lack the vision necessary to
see this threat. Show them this article, and help me wake everyone
up.
In Canada, along with joining LEF, join the Canadian
Coalition for Health Freedom, Robert McMaster, Ste. 937- 6021
Yonge St., North York, Ontario, M2M 3W2, Tel. 416-207-0727, email:
rpm@ican.net
Contact Gord Coleman, Editor, Free World News,
#1010 5334 Yonge St., North York, Ontario, M2N 6V1, Canada, Tel.
416-590-9641, FAX 416-590-9641, http://www.FreeWorldNews.com,
email: JGColeman@FreeWorldNews.com
In other countries see our website at http://www.lef.org,
or email me at john@lef.org
2. Please send and personally give this article
to your elected officials. They are in office to serve YOU, not
to genuflect to the medical industrial complex. If they fail
to do as you wish, vote them out of office.
Tell Senators, Congressmen, and Members of Parliament
that you want your nation to pull OUT of the United Nations,
and that you DO NOT approve of the actions of the so called "World
Health Organization" relative to this issue. Get on the radio,
write op-ed pieces to your local newspaper, set up booths at
all the health food stores and hand out this article, get on
the internet and help me sound the alarm to the people of the
world.
Pray, if you believe in God as I do. If you don't
believe in God, please meditate on this and seek guidance from
deep within yourself- ask yourself if you think we deserve this
gross mistreatment from the medical industrial complex?
3. Deluge the FDA, HPB, TGA, and their various
regulatory counterparts world wide with complaints about this!
Go to our website, find out who your countries Codex Representative
is, and express your feelings about this to that person. Be polite,
but firm. Get their fax number and email address, then swamp
them with billions of faxes and email messages in order to shut
them down. Remember: we outnumber them and can easily shut them
down. LEF has been doing this to the FDA for years with great
success.
4. Organize demonstrations in front of their
buildings, and alert the media via press releases to publicize
your outrage. Reprint this article in your magazine or newsletter.
Send it to your friends and family. Give copies out on the street,
and in front of your local health food store. Get your health
food store keeper to photocopy it and hand it out to each and
every customer. Alert other activists from other causes: Don't
get mad, get even!
5. In the United States, (or from any country)
let Dr. Beth Yetley of the American FDA know precisely how you
feel about the fact that she seconded Cheney's proposal without
asking anyone on the American delegation if they thought this
was a good idea. She can be reached at:
Dr.Elizabeth Yetley
US Codex Rep, Director,
Office of Special Nutritionals
HFS-45, US Food and Drug Administration
200 C St. S.W., Washington, DC 20204
Tel. 202-205-4168
FAX 202-205-5295
6. In Canada, (or from any country) let Dr.Mary
Cheney of the Canadian HPB know exactly how you feel about her
proposal to create a negative list of herbs to ban them from
international sale. Let her know that she has been caught lying
to the Canadian people and to the people of the world. She can
be reached at:
Dr.Mary Cheney, Canadian Codex Rep.
Chief, Nutrition Evaluation Division
Food Directorate, Health Protection Branch
Tunney's Pasture, Postal Locator: 2203A, Ottawa, Ontario, K1AOL2,
Tel. 613-957-0352, FAX 613-941-6636
Send copies of any correspondence to these people to your elected
officials, to the media, and to me. Send a fax a day, make a phone
call a day. If everyone did this, we'd shut them down in no time
flat!
To express your views to PharmaPrint Inc.:
4 Park Plaza, Ste. 1900
Irvine, CA, 92614 USA
Traded NASDAQ: PPRT
James Burgess, Vice President Public Relations
714-224-2555
At the Financial Relations Board:
Moira Conlon
Investor/Analyst Contact
310-442-0599
Steve Seiler, Media Contact
310-442-0599
Remember One Key Thing: THEY MAY HAVE BILLIONS
OF DOLLARS... BUT WE OUTNUMBER THEM!!! REPRINT THIS AND HELP
SPREAD THE WORD! |
