Melbourne, Aug 21, 2007 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Melbourne Biotech Solagran Limited (ASX: SLA) today announced that the Director of the Pasteur Institute in St Petersburg, Professor Anatoly Zhebrun DSc, has accepted the Board's invitation to visit Australia to discuss recently completed trials in relation to the use of Bioeffective(R) A in the prevention and treatment of Helicobacter Pylori infection.
H.Pylori is a pathogen responsible for stomach ulcers and a number of other chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Its role in these diseases was first established by Australian scientists Marshall and Warren. This discovery earned them the Nobel Prize.
Professor Zhebrun is a world authority on infectious diseases and is responsible for Russia's disease control regime. So important is his role that any absence from Russia lasting more than four days requires written permission from the Minister for Health. His decision to devote two weeks to this trip, and the Minister's preparedness to permit such an absence, is an indication of the perceived value of the trip in the eyes of both men.
Professor Zhebrun recently published a book on H.Pylori in which he labels it one of the most important infectious disease challenges confronting health authorities worldwide. He also points out that not only is it the primary cause of stomach and duodenal ulcers, it is also the cause of atrophic gastritis, and both cancer and lymphoma of the stomach.
According to Professor Zhebrun, Gastritis related to H.Pylori does not have specific, easily identified symptoms, and this is why the link to stomach cancer is not widely recognised. But H.Pylori infection increases the risk of stomach cancer by between 6 and 18 times.
World Health Organisation data indicates that worldwide, stomach cancer is the second biggest cause of death from cancer.
Under Professor Zhebrun's supervision, the Pasteur Institute has recently completed a series of trials to investigate the ability of Solagran's Bioeffective(R) A to both prevent and treat H.Pylori infection.
Bioeffective(R) A is the name used in Russia and within Solagran for a substance that is listed on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods as Conifer Green Needle Complex.
H.Pylori infection can be treated with a combination of synthetic antibiotics. But these drugs cannot prevent its spread. The focus of the work done by Professor Zhebrun's team was not only to determine the extent to which Bioeffective(R) A could provide an effective treatment without the unpleasant side effects associated with antibiotic therapy. It was also to determine whether it had the potential to prevent the spread of H.Pylori.
H.Pylori is endemic in the population of many countries and is transmitted primarily via the oral to oral route, including the use of non-sterile eating utensils. It is estimated that 60 percent of the world's population is infected, with up to 90 percent infected in some countries. While only a small proportion of those infected have clinic symptoms, chronic infection still progresses and can lead to serious cases of stomach ulcer or cancer many years after infection.
The prevalence of H.Pylori infection creates a real risk of re-infection for those that have been treated with antibiotics. That is why measures to prevent infection and re-infection are so important. Finding a way to prevent the spread of infection, as well as to treat it without unpleasant side effects, would constitute an enormous clinical and epidemiological breakthrough with equally enormous commercial consequences.
Professor Zhebrun, and his wife Natalia Roshchina DSc, an eminent bio-physicist and immuno-chemist, will be in Australia for twelve days from August 23.
Contact
Denis Kilroy
Executive Director
Solagran Limited
TEL: +61 3 9820 2699
MOB: +61 411 222 844 (m)
http://www.solagran.com
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