Has anyone else seen this?
http://dallasnews.com/national/18460_VIRUS16.html
It doesn’t mention if this will be available over the counter, or by prescription only.
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Doesn’t seem very scientific to me. There is no common cold, its a group of viruses. There is no way to know what the future viruses are anyway, in order to defend against them, see?
handy, if you read the article, you’d see that it attacks a whole category of viruses (169 all told)
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I’m more than a little skepctical. It’s dangerous to place your hopes on a mass media report of any kind of cure. The fact that the company that makes the drug is publicly traded makes me even more wary. Any hype is nothing but good for them.
Whether it is at all useful in treating the cold in the real world remains to be seen, IMO. “Treatment” maybe, but a “cure”? I vote no way.
The exciting thing from a scientific standpoint is that the drug was designed based on 3D stuctural studies of the virus. Most drugs are not designed that way, if they are designed at all.
We gladly devour those who would subdue us.
This probably is not all hype, although the title of this thread & the opening paragraph of the cited article may be:
I found this on MEDline. Please note it does NOT mention Pleconaril by name. Still, it sounds very like what was described in the Dallas article:
Bottom line:
What the drug manufactuters hope to demonstrate:
It will cost $50-100/course (on top of the cost of a doctor’s visit for a prescription, assuming they are not trying for immeditate OTC approval.)
Other “indications” (reasons for using this drug) are not cuurently under investigation, but this drug may be effective against influenza, polio, and other small RNA viruses from the family Picornaviria. It is NOT expected to have any role in combating viruses from other families, but will be effective against a wider array of virues than any other antiviral agent currently in use.
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
It should be noted that rhinovirus and enteroviruses are two of the common sub-groupings of the picornaviruses, presumably all of which have the same site to which the drug can attach and screw up the action of the virus.
The drug should NOT be confused with an innoculation. It doesn’t work by making you unable to contract the virus; it works by making the affect of the virus on you less than it would be without the drug. This is, of course, a ‘cure’, as a cure doesn’t need to be an innoculation. It should be noted that the drug, taken in advance of exposure, appears to prevent the onset of symptoms in a large percentage of cases. However, the company in question is aware of the small chance of large numbers of people taking daily doses to avoid a cold.
Right. This seems to be a step forward from antibiotics, which attack all bacteria, even those we’d prefer to keep.
Thank you for your feedback, Sue. By shortening the duration, it might also help prevent the further spread of colds, as those who won’t stay home and get plenty of rest when infected won’t be transmitting them amongst the rest of us quite as long, if this medication works. This is not to say that it will eliminate them, only reduce them.
As for fighting the rest of the diseases, the drug company doubtless wants to test the drug on them too, but they may be waiting to establish its effectiveness against colds first.
At least they have a real product right now you can take against the influenza. Makes it milder. Costs $60.00 about. Plus Doc visit, at least +$100.00 here. I wouldn’t pay $120 to make a cold milder, assuming that’s what it would do.
There aren’t all that many cold type viruses & I probably already got most of them.