Date: 2/3/2008
TUMS' Public Relations English News Service: The Minster of Health and Medical Education Dr. lankarani, Introduced the discovery of a new drug to treat diabetic foot ulcers at Imam Khomeini Conference Hall, on February 3, 2008.
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In this unveiling ceremony, Dr. Lankarani , the Minister of Health & Medical Education, Dr. Larijani, the Tehran University of Medical Sciences`(TUMS) chancellor, Dr. Omidvar Rezaie, the head of parliament commission for Health, Eng. Sadjadi, the head of Presidential office for technological co operations, a large number of faculty members of the university, top researchers of the country and the press were present when the new drug to treat diabetic foot ulcers was introduced.
Dr. Larijani in his opening speech welcomed the guests and condoled the martyrdom of the fourth Shi’a Imam, Imam Zayn al-Abidin (A.S.), and then he painted a picture of diabetes mellitus status caused by a sedentary life style and its growing prevalence in the world.
Dr. larijani pointed out that “About 170-200 million people are suffering from the disease and the incidence of the disease is age- related and more than 5% of the age groups between 20-80 are affected by the disease, especially in the third world countries”.
He said that “The prevalence of the disease in the eastern Mediterranean region and Middle-East is about 6.5% and about 14 million people are living with the disease and the disease has had a growing trend in the past decades in the world”. Then he compared the tip of an iceberg to the visible or clinically overt manifestation of the disease and the 4/5th of the iceberg to its invisible or sub-clinical state.
He explained that “DM is the 6th leading cause of death that leads to a shortening of life of about 5-10 years, renal failure, blindness, nerve damage in 60 to 70% of the affected patients and finally limb amputations”, the whole process leading to a direct loss of $ 92 billion and an indirect cost of $ 40 billion”. Then he talked on the chronic complications of the disease including retinopathy, nephropathy, foot ulcers, known as diabetic foot and cardiac complications.
About 15% of diabetic patients develop foot ulcers which 15-20% of these will require amputation_ where 50% of these have been preventable.
Approximately, 20% of hospital admissions among diabetic patients in Iran are due to diabetic foot ulcers requiring $5000 – 8000 for the treatment of a simple ulcer.
Then, the chancellor of TUMS introduced ANGIPARSTM, a novel herbal extract which is currently being patented internationally.
He continued his speech by explaining the toxicology and pre-clinical and clinical studies of the drug which had included research on the drug’s acute toxicity, genotoxicity, apoptotic effects, mutagenic properties, embryotoxic, teratogenic and allergic effects.
He said ANGI is a drug without any signs of acute toxicity and its LD50 was less than the solvent (Alcohol) with no damaging effects on the nucleus integrity of cells after exposures of 24 and 48 hours.
He concluded his speech by saying that DM is a common disease with increasing incidence and logically one should expect more complications in future, therefore this drug is a promising treatment for diabetic foot ulcers as it has:
- No side effects
- More effective than standard therapy
- Can be used in all types of diabetic ulcers
- Decreased mean duration of hospital admission
- Decreased direct and indirect costs
- Beneficial effects even after discontinuation
- Decreased amputation rate
Before and After treatment
He finally hoped that researchers of the country, by the help of God, had been able to take a step in materializing the country’s 20-year vision plan and reduce the sufferings of affected people.
Then, Dr. Dinarvand, the ministry’s vice-chancellor for Food & Drug, gave his speech and said that the discovery of this drug had been the fruit of 7 years of hard work by Iranian researchers and thanked God for the achievement that coincided the 29th anniversary of the revolution.
Dr. Lankarani, the minister of Health and Medical Education, expressed his consent about the production of this medication and added that “Researchers’ day and night hard work lead to this discovery that is unique in the world with no counterparts” and knew it a gift to the body of scientists and the people around the world. He said this drug’s mechanism of action was through affecting microvasculature and prevented amputation.
At the end of the session, a scientific panel was held by the participation of Dr. Larijani, TUMS’ chancellor & Head of clinical trial team, Dr. Jamshidi, Dr. Farhadi, the ex-minister and Dr. Heshmatan epidemiologist (mambers of research team), to answer the questions raised by the participants.
This drug has been produced by the participation of Tehran university of Medical Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, and Iranian Red Crescent (Helal-e-Ahmar).
The research leading to this drug has been published in DARU Journal, a journal published by TUMS and indexed in ISI, volume 16, supplement 1, 2008.
Detailed scientific information on ANGIPARSTM.
Using any parts of this writing or the file presented by the link requires exact referencing to this site.
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/english/news/detail.asp?newsID=6217
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