DAAN Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture

Scientists are exploring traditional Chinese medicines to treat menopause:

“A related concern involves so-called bio-identical compounds pharmacies make to treat hot flashes. These compounds are similar to prescription estrogen, but often contain different ingredients or in different concentrations tailored to an individual patient’s needs.

In November, the American Medical Association called for tougher FDA regulations of the compounds, claiming some pharmacies improperly tout them as safer than FDA-approved estrogen. Pharmacists argue that they are sufficiently supervised by state licensing boards.

The absence of federally authorized alternatives to estrogen has aroused keen interest among some biotech executives.

“The potential market opportunity for a safer drug to treat menopausal symptoms is enormous,'’ said Dr. Mary Tagliaferri, chief medical officer at Bionovo, who said she and another executive sold their homes to help start the company in 2005.

Bionovo calls its Chinese-herbal extract treatment, which is taken orally, MF101. Like many estrogen treatments, MF101 attaches to receptors on a woman’s cells, triggering a genetic response that tends to limit hot flashes. But unlike estrogen, MF101 doesn’t activate a type of receptor linked to cancerous growths, according to an early-stage study of 22 postmenopausal women that was published in the November issue of the journal Endocrinology.

Depomed hopes to one day win FDA approval for its proposed hot-flash treatment using gabapentin. That drug was approved in 1994 as a medicine for seizures. But this summer, gabapentin also proved as effective as estrogen in easing hot flashes in a preliminary National Institutes of Health-sponsored study involving 60 women.”

Tags: Women's Health //