Sao Paulo: Human testing started Monday in
Brazil on a controversial anti-cancer medicine
that has been distributed in the country for
years without having gone through proper trials.
The drug, a synthetic phosphoethanolamine
known widely as "the cancer pill," was beginning
testing with 10 patients at the Sao Paulo Cancer
Institute, the Sao Paulo state health department
said.
None of those taking part in the trial are being
treated with any other drugs, a statement said.
If no serious side effects are noted, the trial will
then be expanded to up to 1,000 people.
The pill was created by Sao Paulo University
professor Gilberto Orivaldo Chierice in the
1990s. Despite claims of a miracle cure, there
has been little evidence of its efficacy.
Chierice´s drug was not tested but after entering
into use in one Sao Paulo hospital word rapidly
spread, boosting demand, until Sao Paulo
University´s chemistry institute was making
50,000 capsules a month without any
government oversight.
Distribution was halted in 2014 amid growing
doubts in the scientific community about the
safety. But in April, president Dilma Rousseff --
who was just about to be suspended from her
post in an impeachment trial -- signed a law
legalizing the substance.
Shortly after the Supreme Court overruled her
and said the medicine´s distribution would
depend on it going through proper testing.
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