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The Catholic Register
BY MICHAEL SWAN
Death with dignity, and without making your doctor into a murderer, may be a step closer with a new medication in clinical trials.
Tectin™ is derived from the toxins which makes the tropical, salt water pufferfish dangerous to eat. The scientific name for the
pufferfish poison is tetrodotoxin, and it is being tested across Canada for its pain killing properties by International Wex Technologies Inc., a Chinese pharmaceutical company.
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 Heritics of Heroin Recovery Club listing online Recovery Meetings
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"It was originally designed to help heroin addicts with withdrawal off heroin," said International Wex spokesman Mark Butler. "The drug worked well enough that the Chinese government gave them a contract to supply about 500 detoxification centres in China."
As research on the non-narcotic, organic drug continued, scientists discovered its effectiveness in helping recovering heroin addicts was a matter of blocking the pain associated with withdrawal. To see how effective its pain killing properties might be, scientists in Beijing ran a trial with 11 terminally ill cancer patients suffering severe pain with only limited relief from standard morphine treatment.
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"Within the first five minutes, out of 11 patients, 10 of them reported zero pain. One of them reported a pain level of one," Butler said.
The 11 patients continued treatment with Tectin™ every 12 hours for three days, and continued to report zero pain. They were evaluated again 20 days later, and despite not receiving the Tectin™ after the first three days continued to report relief from pain.
More extensive testing with a much larger sample group will be necessary for the product to be licenced in Canada. Despite having some of the leading experts in pain medication conduct the phase-two trials, researchers are having trouble finding enough patients who meet the strict criteria for the tests, Butler said.
The Euthanasia...»»
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