|  Quality
of Life, As Important As Life Itself
Thursday January 17, 4:35 am
ET
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Samaritan
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC BB:SPHC.OB)
Story
also found on the Medical News TODAY website: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/94366.php
Today,
an HIV prognosis comes with an array of possible treatment
choices rather than the death sentence it used to hold.
While the word “treatment” is liberating
to hear for HIV patients, the drugs that are used to
combat this chronic disease are replete with a myriad
of serious side effects such as kidney stones; nausea;
vomiting; diarrhea; increased cholesterol, triglycerides
and glucose; headaches; weakness; blurred vision; dizziness;
rashes; low platelets; hair loss; and anemia.
The faltering quality of life of HIV patients taking
these medical cocktails can cause them to question,
Has the cost of treatment been too high? “Quality
of life issues are leaping to the forefront,”
says Dr. Janet Greeson, CEO of Samaritan Pharmaceuticals.
Samaritan has created an HIV drug, SP-01A,
that not only shows efficacy in controlling the virus,
it is the only treatment of its kind to demonstrate
improved patient quality of life according to the Whalen
Scale indices.
An oral entry inhibitor taken as an adjunct, SP-01A
is easy for patients to take in pill form and can improve
quality of life by enabling users to decrease the dosage
of currently taken anti-retroviral drugs, thereby reducing
side effects. SP-01A
does not treat the virus, rather, it created a firewall
around healthy cells that prevents HIV entry. Unlike
currently approved antiretroviral therapies, SP-01A
conditions the cell membrane as opposed to targeting
the virus or its receptors directly.
According to a recent New York Times article, HIV patients
who have been on a mixture of drugs are suddenly facing
unexpected medical conditions. The article reported
that a relatively young AIDS patient who was diagnosed
two decades ago, suffers from complex health problems
usually associated with advanced age such as chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, kidney failure,
a bleeding ulcer, severe depression, cancer, and the
lingering effects of a broken hip. Experts believe the
immune system and organs of long-time survivors are
aging and damaged from a combination of the disease
and the toxicity of the drugs.
“HIV
patients are living longer and we remain focused on
saving lives,” says Dr. Greeson. “But we
are increasingly aware that quality of life issues taken
into consideration during drug development serve not
only patients but companies as well.”
For
more information on SP-01A: http://www.samaritanpharma.com/aids_hiv_program_sp-01a.asp
For
more information, log on to www.samaritanpharma.com.
Contact:
IRG for Samaritan
Laura Colontrelle, 212-825-3210 |
