cannabisnews.com: Pharmos to Test Cannabis-Like Drug for Memory Loss Pharmos to Test Cannabis-Like Drug for Memory Loss Posted by CN Staff on July 26, 2002 at 08:47:34 PT By Gwen Ackerman Source: Jerusalem Post Pharmos Corporation, which sold its ophthalmic business to eye care giant Bausch & Lomb last year, is off and running with a whole new set of compounds derived from a cannabis–like compound. The chemical compound, that imitates marijuana without inducing the same physiological effects, has already led to a treatment for severe traumatic brain injury, is called dexanabinol, which is in an international Phase III trial. The drug stops the inflammation of the brain, blocks the toxic release of dying cells, and has already saved the lives of young Israeli traffic accident victims. Thursday Pharmos received approval from the Health Ministry to clinically test dexanabinol as a preventive agent against the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) that can follow coronary surgery. The double-blind, placebo-controlled trial is due to be carried out at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center on a group of up to 200 patients. “The commencement of this study is an important strategic move that broadens our pipeline,” said Haim Aviv, chairman and CEO. “The potential market is large and currently void of any product. At the same time, the large, relatively homogeneous patient population and elective nature of the surgery make the trial a fairly uncomplicated one for us.” Cognitive loss following cardiac surgery was not considered a major problem until two years ago, when a study showed that the memory loss caused by a blockage of blood flow to the brain that followed the surgery was long term. “Post surgical MCI is a serious risk facing patients who need major heart surgery,” said Seth Kindler, Medical Director of Pharmos. “Development of post-surgical MCI is also a known risk factor for the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease.” Dexanabinol has shown itself to be a successful in significantly improving cognition and orientation in a traumatic brain injury cases during trials performed in Israel. “Since our drug is protecting a brain that doesn’t get blood supply, we decided to do a trial on bypass surgery patients,” said Aviv. The preliminary testing cycle of dexanabinol on cardiac surgery patients is likely to take six months, after which several more studies must be done in Europe and the US before it will be available in the market. If dexanabinol proves successful in treating the cognitive impairment, it will have a lucrative market. There are more than one million cardiac operations performed annually around the world, with up to 35 percent of the patients suffering some type of cognitive impairment that leads to a health care cost per patient of $250,000 over five years. Pharmos intends to expand dexanabinol’s benefits to stroke victims as well, and in its pipeline is a sister compound that appears to be particularly effective in protecting vein damage after blood flow is blocked. The research is currently on hold while Pharmos looks for a large company to partner in the trial. “We have the money for the clinical trials we are currently undertaking for the brain injury treatment [which is being done in 60 centers in Europe] but cannot undertake the $30-40m. commitment for the stroke trial,” said Aviv. But the company does not intend to stop with stroke victims. It has also designed a family of new cannoboid type structures that bind to certain receptors in the body and alleviate long term or neuropatic pain, such as that felt by cancer patients, arthritis sufferers, and diabetics. Currently there is no good treatment for these types of pain, said Aviv. Morphine is not that effective, as it is designed for the acute pain that immediately follows surgery, and it has unpleasant side effects as well. The anti-inflammatory drugs currently used are beneficial only in very mild situations. Pharmos has developed a prototype over the past two years and is currently testing a number of compounds and readying for animal toxicology work. The biggest challenge in the development of the drug is to alleviate the pain without causing the behavioral changes that are seen in those who regularly smoke marijuana. Publicly traded on Nasdaq and headquartered in New Jersey, Pharmos has a staff of 60, 50 of whom work in R&D labs in Rehovot.Complete Title: Pharmos to Test Cannabis-Like Drug for Memory Loss After Heart SurgerySource: Jerusalem Post (Israel)Author: Gwen AckermanPublished: July 25, 2002 Copyright: 2002, The Jerusalem PostContact: editors jpost.co.ilWebsite: http://www.jpost.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Pharmos Corp.http://www.pharmoscorp.com/Marijuana Ingredient Helps Head Injurieshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11046.shtmlCompound May Reduce Brain Trauma Damagehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11033.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #26 posted by Zero_G on July 29, 2002 at 11:49:39 PT qqqq Yes, it is tragic when children are abducted, but, as you point out children have been turning up missing since children have been turning up.But, the children who've been turning up missing on the news shows are overwelmingly white and middle class. Unlike the overwelming numbers of children turning up missing in general.... [ Post Comment ] Comment #25 posted by BGreen on July 27, 2002 at 13:45:29 PT Get Zone Alarm Zone Alarm is free for personal use and it works great. It's a firewall, which protects your computer from unauthorized access, and from the independent reviews I've read it has no leaks, meaning it completely protects you from hackers. All of you should have a firewall up, but if you're online 24/7 and don't have a firewall, you WILL get hacked. Zone Alarm [ Post Comment ] Comment #24 posted by freedom fighter on July 27, 2002 at 00:20:20 PT Troutmask I can attest this fact.. It is easy to hack into someone's computer. Got hacked twice myself. Especially if your computer is hooked on-line 24 hrs..I read somewhere recently that these companies are already are doing this. In other word, they are criminals.. It is againsit law to hack into anyone's computer. So, this fool is trying to pass a law allowing certain groups to be able to do this..That's no justice for all. More like Justice for the few!ff [ Post Comment ] Comment #23 posted by qqqq on July 27, 2002 at 00:16:58 PT ..Missing Children... ......yes,,it's tragic and sickening when children are abducted......But,,like Mayan and DanB alluded to,,kids have been disappearing since the caveman times....There is no increase in missing children,,there is just a new,grotesque media fixation on it!....I do feel sorry for any kid who is abducted,and their families too,,but,the media has carried the whole thing in an obviously disproportionate manner...The Samantha Runion thing has been an absurd media circus......No one gives a flyin' fuck,until the media saturates the "news",with these type of relatively insignificant "news stories"........Think about it;;if the "news",wants to make an issue out of something,,then it has the power to do so...All of a sudden,,there is blanket saturation coverage of these recent incidents,,and although they are worthy of mention,,they are not worthy of national coverage to this extent! ...Think about it....in a way,,we are spoonfed the "issues",that are "important"...If the national media would not have zeroed in on Samantha Runion,,or Elian Gonzales,,etc..there would have never been this weird frenzy of concern...I am not saying that these events were not worth reporting,,I am saying that these things are blown way out of proportion,and seem to be used by the media to divert attention from the REAL bigtime news!...News like the Hollywood hack story that EJ brought up,,that's news,,.,,,or how about todays passage of a law that changes bankruptcy laws for everyone,except corporations..Now that's what I call news!..but even that pales in comparison to blockbuster news of corporate scandals within the empire...Imagine if there was coverage of the innocents that have been slaughtered by US 'collateral damage',in Afghanistan,like the coverage Samantha Runion recieved?.......The media,is EVERYTHING!...If you control the media,,you can control the country,,or even the world! [ Post Comment ] Comment #22 posted by CongressmanSuet on July 26, 2002 at 22:55:50 PT Link has been updated... I have been accessing www.aimster.com thru a link I have on my desktop. Seems they changed their name recently to www.madster.com. Try this one... http://www.madster.com [ Post Comment ] Comment #21 posted by CongressmanSuet on July 26, 2002 at 22:49:39 PT Downloading MP3s.... I downloaded over 2000 files from Napster.com when they were still "alive". Being unable and unwilling to just give up when they were ordered into oblivion, I subsequently found other sites that still let you download any song you can think of. The best right now is WWW.Aimster.com. There is another good one called WWW.Bearshare.com, but it is abit more complicated and a general pain in the ""s! After getting my excellent cable connection[Roadrunner} getting a song was no longer a 45 minute ordeal, now I typically get them in a few minutes. Freedom still lives on the WWW, its just in hiding! http://www.aimster.com [ Post Comment ] Comment #20 posted by BGreen on July 26, 2002 at 20:09:10 PT Seems like I've read about these implants before He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.Revelation 13:16-17 [ Post Comment ] Comment #19 posted by Dan B on July 26, 2002 at 19:56:50 PT mayan You just hit the proverbial nail on the head, and hats off to you for recognizing why they are doing this. Any day now, we will be seeing "news stories" on the very chips you describe. I'm sure you know that the family who invented such a chip has implanted them in each family member, including their teenage son. So, they are likely getting ready for a media blitz to pump up their product.Once kids are given these chips, adults will be encouraged to get them too--to make kids feel better about getting their own, don'tcha know. And then they'll be mandatory for everyone. "Hey, we don't need no stinking ID cards; we can just implant a chip under everyone's skin and monitor them via satellite global positioning systems!" Dan B [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by mayan on July 26, 2002 at 17:26:23 PT Missing Children... Is it just coincidence that these cable-news stations started reporting all of these missing children right after the human-implant chip was approved by the FDA? How many parents are now considering getting one put in their kids?I think it is great that these stations are reporting these missing kids, but why weren't they doing this long ago? Where I live a couple children have been abducted in the last several years, but they were never reported on cable-news channels. If these channels covered all of the missing children in the U.S. there would be no time for any other news coverage. I think a designated "missing children network channel" would be a very good idea. [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by BGreen on July 26, 2002 at 16:13:34 PT If you want to download MP3's Ask your ISP if they have a news server (Usenet.) If they don't, or even if they do, you might want to subscribe to a pay news server. www.teranews.com will give you 50 megs per day for free (there's a $3 first time setup fee,) but a CD ripped to MP3's will usually be about 60 to 80 megs, so you can't download much. Plus, you have to use a dedicated news reader.www.easynews.com let's you download 6 gigs per month for $9.95, you can use your web browser instead of a dedicated news reader, and the retention rate (how long posts stay up or available) runs over 30 days in the binary groups. It's the best I've used. You can just do a search for mp3, and you'll be presented with numerous groups where you can download music to your heart's content.Usenet can be a pretty trashy place to wander around, because there is a lot of porn of every kind imaginable and worse, but you never have to find those groups if you don't look. Every once in a while someone will post something off topic of a pornographic nature, but it's rare, and you don't have to download it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by Zero_G on July 26, 2002 at 16:05:06 PT music resources Hi FoM,many bands have websites which include downloads for people to listen to, and others have fans sites which include downloads.Here's a link to one for the Moody Blues...http://www.frisk.org/mbindex/pages/Audio_Collections/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by FoM on July 26, 2002 at 15:30:01 PT BGreen Thanks. I have gotten radio stations and DirecWay has a nice one. A storm is coming so my satellite keeps kicking out but when the weather changes I'll be back. [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by BGreen on July 26, 2002 at 14:51:45 PT Finding MP3's isn't so easy You can download music for keeps, but the copyright laws have shut down most of the websites involved, so it's done on News Servers and mIRC, and is probably more than you want to go through. MP3.com will allow you to download songs, but they're generally songs from unknown bands, so the quality varies.Streaming audio, the equivalent of listening to the radio, is all over the place. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by BGreen on July 26, 2002 at 14:44:43 PT To answer your question, FoM In RealOne player, click "view," then click "Radio," then you can search for the style of music you want, or do a search for the town you want.I share your tears. [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by FoM on July 26, 2002 at 14:38:44 PT BGreen Me too. I'm crying and I don't cry very easily anymore. I don't understand why this happens. I don't understand.God Bless The Children [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by BGreen on July 26, 2002 at 14:32:20 PT Dear God, not again!!! Another 6-year-old has been kidnapped and killed. This is MY STATE NOW! This fucking state has declared me a criminal, but the babies keep dying, and I'm so hurt. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by FoM on July 26, 2002 at 14:24:21 PT Off Topic Now that I have a satelitte I'd like to listen to music but I don't know how you find music to listen too. I remember a web site where you could download music but I think they took it down. Are there any web sites that you can get different songs? My ignorance is showing I'm sure. Please don't laugh! LOL!I remember the name! Napster! [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by SpaceCat on July 26, 2002 at 10:59:10 PT Cali congress kitten poses pop profit protection As Variety might say. I agree with the opinions expressed here, and they should definitely be voiced to the appropriate congress critter, but this is more akin to pork barrel politics than a determined assault on the constitution. Granted the corporate takeover of congress is more overt than in the past, but twice in the eighties the record companies tried the same thing with home taping. Claiming loss of revenue, they tried to get a tax on blank tape. Congress sent them packing both times. Cali goes back to his constituents and says "I tried, but those fat cats in Washington don't understand your pain, but vote for me again and I'll keep fighting". Of course, the clever constitutional dismantler jumps at every opportunity... [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by TroutMask on July 26, 2002 at 10:02:20 PT You're right of course Point taken. It is a nasty, unprecedented attack on the 4th amendment and our right to privacy. Just because they might not be able to do it doesn't keep it from being a really bad idea to begin with.-TM [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by E_Johnson on July 26, 2002 at 09:47:45 PT This is a move for corporate policing of Americans Berman said his bill would not allow industry to spread viruses across file-trading networks, destroy files or hack into a consumer's personal data, but experts said its language would permit intrusions into a consumer's audio and video files and attacks that would knock a computer off-line. The proposal would lift civil and criminal penalties against entertainment companies "disabling, interfering with, blocking, diverting or otherwise impairing" the online trading of pirated songs and movies. They want the right to do things to you that the police are legally barred from doing.This is a move towards a corporate police state.I think this is pretty serious, and I thank Fox for being the ones to raise the alarm. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by E_Johnson on July 26, 2002 at 09:41:11 PT It's not the tech success it's the legal precedent I don't care if their idea is workable or not, what matters here is that a California Democrat thinks it is okey dokey to give an entertainment corporation the right to void the Bill of Rights completely and become their own police force and do things that the police are not even allowed to do.This man Howard Berman has to be met with contempt immediately or he will transmit his disease to others soon enough.Call his office and tell his people that this is wrong to the point of being fundamentally anti-ZAmerican.This is a fundamentally anti-American thing going on. This sure as hell is not what people died for in the Revolution!The wording of the 4th Amendment ought to be a clue.But these are all the pee-tested people thinking up these ideas. This shows where pee testing has led us. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by TroutMask on July 26, 2002 at 09:34:25 PT I don't think so... IMHO, their idea is technically unworkable. The first hurdle is determining who is downloading the material. The second hurdle is "hacking" someone's computer, or worse "hacking" the computer of every single person they somehow determined are downloading the material. The third hurdle is determining where the files are, what the files are and whether they are actually copyright protected. They can't just scan your hard drive and delete any existing MP3 file (assuming they can somehow gain access to your computer in the first place). Assuming they can determine someone is or did download copyright music, the best they could probably pull off is a DOS (denial of service) attack, temporarily slowing or stopping Internet access for the "criminal". But whatever they do, they are going to have to spend one hell of a lot of money to purchase and use human and technical resources to maybe slow down a very small percentage of the traffic. Sounds like a bunch of baloney to me.*IMHO*-TM [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on July 26, 2002 at 09:28:30 PT Really? “The potential market is large and currently void of any product."That's funny, over here in the US, we have 80 million people who have used the medicine already.Of course, most of the governments in the world are willing to provide price control for Big Pharm. how nice of them [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on July 26, 2002 at 09:22:27 PT Here's the story link on FoxNews http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,58786,00.htmlGosh is this the complete and total end of the Fourth Amendment?Wouldn't they have to completely repeal the Fourth Amendment to make this happen? [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by E_Johnson on July 26, 2002 at 09:00:18 PT Berman's contact info Contact Information Web Site: www.house.gov/bermanE-mail: howard.berman mail.house.govWashington Office:Phone: (202) 225-4695Fax: (202) 225-3196If they get the right to hack home computers and shut off Internet access because you downloaded a copyrighted song, guess what else they will then immediately give themselves permission to do?If they get away with this, there will be no stopping them. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on July 26, 2002 at 08:54:45 PT Hollywood wants right to hack home computers!!! WASHINGTON ? A proposal by a California congressman would give the entertainment industry broad new powers to try to stop people from downloading pirated music and movies off the Internet. Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., formally proposed legislation that would give the industry unprecedented new authority to secretly hack into consumers' computers or knock them off-line entirely if they are caught downloading copyrighted material. This is noxious. This is the beginning of the end for the Internet if they can do this. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment