By Catherine Masters
The greenshell mussel extract offering hope to cancer sufferers may be banned from New Zealand shops indefinitely after a ruling yesterday that sales may be illegal.
New Zealanders yesterday rushed pharmacies searching for supplies and placing orders for the extract. But the sales bonanza -- reaping a reported
total figure of $2 million in one day from $49.95 packets of 50 capsules -- was soon over. The Ministry of Health said the product, lyprinol, had been promoted as a medicine, yet had not been proven as one.
And because claims in promotional material outstripped research evidence, it was a breach of the Medicines Act, said spokesman Dr Stewart Jessamine.
Last night, the ministry was still deciding whether to recall capsules already sold, or those on the way to shops, after revealing that the New Zealand distributor, Pacific Pharmaceuticals, had voluntarily halted distribution.
Dr Jessamine said promotional material linked to a facsimile message sent to pharmacists made it clear the product was being promoted for therapeutic purposes, namely asthma, arthritis and issues surrounding cancer.
"I think there is an interesting question in that the link with this product being a cure for cancer may be indelible in the mind of the public," he said, and that raised questions of whether lyprinol would ever be available in New Zealand again except as a prescribed medicine.
Human trials of the product against breast and prostate cancer are due to begin in Australia in coming weeks.
The timing of the launch of the product here -- just days after an announcement from Australia that it killed test-tube cancer cells -- has churned up huge controversy.
Dr Jessamine said cancer victims and their families should not buy into "such cynical marketing ploys."
Even Prime Minister Jenny Shipley entered the debate: "I am concerned that what appears to be a breaking news story suddenly is available in New Zealand pharmacies this morning.
"As an ex-Health Minister, I am just a little concerned about the two things being aligned."
The Australian and New Zealand cancer societies and the New Zealand Medical Association all said cancer patients should not pin their hopes on the unproven lyprinol and voiced concerns about the timing of publicity. Further controversy came when the research director for a New Zealand company with a similar extract said his product -- Seatone -- had contained lyprinol for years.
John Croft, from McFarlane Laboratories NZ Ltd, said Maclab, the company manufacturing lyprinol, and McFarlane used to be the same company, but split in the 1980s. He said the cancer cells killed in a laboratory by lyprinol -- as reported by Dr Henry Betts -- could have been destroyed by just about anything.
Dr Betts, in an earlier statement, said there had been countless new drugs that seemed to kill cancer cells in test tubes but failed in the human body.
"We know lyprinol works in the body based on its current history [it appears to help arthritis sufferers].
"This new trial is an exciting extension of that usage."
By Catherine Masters
The greenshell mussel extract offering hope to cancer sufferers may be banned from New Zealand shops indefinitely after a ruling yesterday that sales may be illegal.
New Zealanders yesterday rushed pharmacies searching for supplies and placing orders for the extract. But the sales bonanza -- reaping a reported
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