Largest Ever Clinical Trial On Stroke Recovery Medication To Be Initiated In Singapore And Philippines

Main Category: Stroke
Also Included In: Clinical Trials / Drug Trials;  Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry;  Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 27 Sep 2007 - 19:00 PDT

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NeuroAid™, a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to aid stroke recovery, is set to undergo the largest clinical trial ever conducted on a stroke recovery medication. The trial targets stroke patients, who will be recruited within 48 hours of stroke incidence at participating hospitals.

The study will be carried out by the CHIMES Society, a non-profit multinational academic society comprising doctors and stroke specialists, which aims to study the efficacy of NeuroAid™ on stroke recovery at acute stage. Members include renowned neurologists from Europe and Asia. This trial will roll out progressively at several hospitals beginning in Singapore in October 2007.

The CHIMES Stroke Study is ground-breaking for the medical industry as the largest clinical trial on stroke recovery and the first time any TCM product has been assessed on this wide a scale outside China. The two-year study is a unique collaboration between stroke centres across Southeast Asia, including the University of Santo Tomas hospital in the Philippines, and a number of leading hospitals in Thailand.

In Singapore the study is supported by a grant from the National Medical Research Council (NRMC).

Professor Marie-Germaine Bousser, Head of Neurology at Lariboisiere Hospital in Paris, France, and Vice Chairman of the CHIMES society, commented, "Recent drug trials in the acute treatment of stroke have unfortunately all been negative. It is thus very exciting to take a completely new approach and to scientifically test in different populations a compound that has long been used in TCM."

David Picard, CEO of Moleac, the Singapore-based biopharmaceutical company that develops and markets NeuroAid™ outside of China, said, "We are delighted at the interest NeuroAid™ has generated among the medical community worldwide. Over 200,000 patients in China are using NeuroAid™ every year, and we get positive feedback from individual patients internationally. Nevertheless we still need to generate accepted Western data from the early stages of stroke to further validate its use, and to encourage the international medical community at large to prescribe it to their patients.

"Our ultimate goal is to see NeuroAid™ established within accepted treatment guidelines for stroke sufferers, making its benefits available to all patients who need it," he added.

NeuroAid™ is marketed internationally by Moleac, which identified the product in China as the first medicine that can help bring about faster and fuller recovery of motor and cognitive functions in stroke patients during rehabilitation. It is available in Singapore as a Chinese proprietary medicine, and in other countries in the region as a food supplement. Doctors and patients from as far as the United States have also started using NeuroAid™ regularly with positive results.

More information about the CHIMES study can be obtained at http://www.chimes-society.org.

About NeuroAidTM

NeuroAid™ is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) product first developed in China. Targeting stroke patients, it helps patients achieve better recovery of motor and cognitive functions. It is a combination of fourteen all-natural ingredients from the Chinese medicinal pharmacopoeia, formulated according to international Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards.

NeuroAid™'s efficacy and safety was tested in a multi-centre double blind randomized clinical trial conducted on 605 patients in China from 1999-2000. Patients taking NeuroAid™ were shown to be 2.11 times more likely to reach functional independence and 1.7 times more likely to reduce their neurological deficit of at least 55% than patients who did not take the product. It helped improve stroke patients' ability to recover even when treatment was started several weeks after the onset of stroke.

NeuroAid™ is currently marketed in Singapore as a Chinese proprietary medicine to support neurological functions, and in other countries as a food supplement or a natural medicine. It is also sold internationally by Moleac via the website www.neuroaid.com. With the CHIMES study under way, it is the first traditional medicine in the world to undergo a large scale evidence-based medical trial.

About Chimes Society

CHIMES is a Singapore-based non profit society formed by a group of key international opinion leaders in stroke, Southeast Asia regional experts and clinicians.

The society was founded to implement a clinical trial on NeuroAid™'s efficacy in aiding stroke recovery. Conducted in compliance with standard Western clinical trial methodology, the study represents an innovation in bridging Eastern and Western medicine.

The CHIMES study, a multi-centre double blind controlled randomised trial, will compare NeuroAid™ with a matched placebo in its ability to reduce neurological deficit and improving independence in patients who have suffered from a moderately severe stroke. It will recruit 1,100 participants. These patients will be recruited within 48 hours after suffering a stroke attack, and will be periodically assessed for three months.

In 2007, CHIMES received a landmark study grant in 2007 from the Singapore National Medical Research Council. The trial will begin in October 2007, at sites in Singapore and in the Philippines. In the ensuing months, leading hospitals in Thailand will also join the trial.

For more information on CHIMES, please visit http://www.chimes-society.org.

About Moleac

Moleac is a biopharmaceutical company that brings together the best of Asian and Western medicinal traditions. It identifies promising medicine discovered in China and develops them into Western mainstream medicine. Conversely, it develops and markets in Asia innovative technologies and medical products that it in-licenses from Europe.

Its first drug, NeuroAid™, focuses on brain stroke recovery and is derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). NeuroAid™ is sold in Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, South Africa and China, and is also available worldwide via http://www.neuroaid.com, and Moleac's website, http://www.moleac.net

Moleac is headquartered in Singapore. Its operations and research are located in Biopolis, a world-class purpose built complex for biomedical sciences research.

http://www.biopolis.com.sg