Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Epitan rebrands as Clinuvel, Epitan product now CU1647
Epitan, the company developing a product which prompts tanning (melanin), has rebranded as Clinuvel (a combination of "clinical" and "uv"... apparently!) and renamed the Epitan product CU1674.
Regulatory approval requires that their product is demonstrated in over 1000 patients. So far they have trialled it in 167. Their struggle is that you cannot register a medicine for "sunburn" or "tanning" so they have had to seek out disorders to which it can be applied. They have chosen immuno-compromised patients susceptible to Actinic Keratosis (Solar Keratosis) which can lead to cancer and are looking for others. More here.
Rosacean sufferers may benefit. The product could potentially thicken our facial skin, protect it from sunburn and hide the redness. However, worth noting that facial flushing has been one of the side effects reported from previous trials.
Recently their pharmaceutical manager resigned. Given the speed of development, their past struggles with funding, their seeming struggle to register the drug and the slow speed of clinical trials, I doubt we will see CU1674 anytime soon.
[update, 21 Apri 06 - this article says that clinuvel hope to have "epitan"/CU1674 "registered for use by the start of 2009"... so if anything in that schedule slips it may be 2010 or later...]
For some interesting info on Melanotan peptides, see Melatan.org. They have active forums on both CU1674 and Melanotan II peptides where people are experimenting with the peptides (with the associated risks - no one knows the long or short term dangers!). Some interesting results.
Regulatory approval requires that their product is demonstrated in over 1000 patients. So far they have trialled it in 167. Their struggle is that you cannot register a medicine for "sunburn" or "tanning" so they have had to seek out disorders to which it can be applied. They have chosen immuno-compromised patients susceptible to Actinic Keratosis (Solar Keratosis) which can lead to cancer and are looking for others. More here.
Rosacean sufferers may benefit. The product could potentially thicken our facial skin, protect it from sunburn and hide the redness. However, worth noting that facial flushing has been one of the side effects reported from previous trials.
Recently their pharmaceutical manager resigned. Given the speed of development, their past struggles with funding, their seeming struggle to register the drug and the slow speed of clinical trials, I doubt we will see CU1674 anytime soon.
[update, 21 Apri 06 - this article says that clinuvel hope to have "epitan"/CU1674 "registered for use by the start of 2009"... so if anything in that schedule slips it may be 2010 or later...]
For some interesting info on Melanotan peptides, see Melatan.org. They have active forums on both CU1674 and Melanotan II peptides where people are experimenting with the peptides (with the associated risks - no one knows the long or short term dangers!). Some interesting results.
