Ijexa that was naughty!

blktears

@ijexia

For a moment i did not understand the joke behind the thread

but now I understand

By developing drugs to help "melanin deficent" people not to develop skin cancer in hot countries then they can colonize these countries.

mass imigration will occur, especially since Blighty will be the first Island to get flooded by increase in water levels caused by global warming

hmmmm

Already working on protecting white folks so they can move in droves into Sub-Saharan Africa:

EpiTan Limited has a pre-eminent position in the development of new technology for reducing UV-related skin damage.

EpiTan’s unique technology platform is centred on its leading drug candidate Melanotan®. The company has the exclusive worldwide rights to develop Melanotan which, like sunlight, stimulates the production of melanin in the skin resulting in a tan.

Tanning occurs when ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun or a solarium comes into contact with the skin. This causes the natural substance a (alpha)-MSH to be released by the body and stimulate tanning cells in the skin called melanocytes. These in turn produce melanin, the pigment responsible for the brown colour of tanned skin.

Melanotan is a synthetic copy of the body's own a-MSH, but is more potent. It stimulates the production of melanin without the need for excessive UV light, giving the skin its tanned appearance while also acting like an internal sunscreen, protecting the skin against injury from further UV exposure from the sun or solarium.

Under normal circumstances if a person is exposed to UV light, melanin takes several days to form a protective barrier, particularly in fair-skinned people. During this time the skin is especially vulnerable to sunburn, repeated episodes of which contribute to the development of skin cancer.

Melanotan circumvents the natural tanning process by triggering melanin production before exposure to dangerous levels of UV. This new technology will benefit people with fair skin who are most at risk of sunburn injury and therefore of developing skin cancer.

Phase II clinical trial results for Melanotan have shown that, for the first time, a drug can achieve a 50% reduction in sunburn injury and melanin density increases as high as 100% following UV exposure in fair-skinned volunteers in particular.

EpiTan has also developed a user-friendly drug delivery formulation for Melanotan in the form of a sustained release solid injectable which will be injected into the skin under the arm. This will slowly dissolve over a few days releasing a steady stream of Melanotan into the body allowing the appropriate level of melanin to form.

Potential markets worldwide for Melanotan for dermatology purposes are estimated at US$2.5 billion. An even greater market (more than US$5 billion) exists for Melanotan as a new safe (sunless) tanning drug.

Competitive advantages

Epidemiological studies have clearly associated increased levels of melanin with reduced incidences of skin cancer. Therefore, if the amount of melanin in the skin can be controlled, there is a potential to reduce skin damage and subsequently decrease the risk of skin cancer.

An increased level of melanin in the skin is commonly referred to as a ‘tan’. EpiTan’s key objective is to use Melanotan to increase the concentration of melanin in the skin without the need for exposure to harmful levels of sunlight. Consequently, EpiTan is in a unique position to enter both the global sunscreen and tanning markets.

Skin cancer is the most prevalent of all cancers in the world and a major global health issue affecting millions of lives and costing economies billions of dollars. In the US alone, US$1.1 billion per annum is spent on treatment costs.

The increasing awareness that UV exposure is the primary cause of skin damage and skin cancer drives the global industry for sun care products. US sales of sun protection products are in the order of US$0.44 billion per annum.

Alongside increasing skin cancer awareness is the escalating popularity of tanning. Surveys show that while more people are aware of the dangers of unshielded exposure to UV radiation, the desire to be fashionable outweighs their health concerns. This is evidenced by the rapid growth of the global tanning salon industry.

In the USA, The American Academy of Dermatology estimates greater than one million Americans are visiting tanning salons every day. Other figures quote that in 2001, there were approximately 28 million visits made to 25,000 solariums. The market for tanning in salons in the US is estimated at US$2 billion dollars per annum with a further US$100 million spent on self-tanning products.

Other potential markets for Melanotan are as a therapeutic drug for treatment of various dermatological disorders in which UV radiation may play a part including psoriasis, vitiligo, polymorphous light eruption and solar urticaria. This market has a potential value of US$1 billion per annum.

Technology/Services

Because of its instability, natural a-MSH is unsuitable as a drug. Melanotan, the synthetic analogue of a-MSH was chemically prepared at the University of Arizona and has two changes introduced into the a-MSH molecule to produce Melanotan. Norleucine (Nle4) is substituted at the No. 4 position, and the No. 7 AA is D-Phenylalanine (D-Phe7). Both substitutions enhance potency considerably.

In in-vitro skin pigmentation assays, Melanotan is 1,000 times more active than natural -MSH. Melanotan is also highly resistant to enzymatic degradation, yielding a much longer plasma half-life in humans.

When preclinical studies with Melanotan demonstrated that it had no obvious toxic effects clinical trials to demonstrate tanning of the skin in humans were carried out under an IND program in Arizona. The Arizona team was encouraged to find that Melanotan induced a tan in the volunteers which was slowly produced in the same way as a natural tan and persisted for a similar time. The results were published in the Journal of the American Association in 1991 (Vol 266; 2730-2736) and this was the first demonstration of a stable drug candidate that could induce a natural tan in human beings. Importantly, further studies showed that the melanin produced by the volunteers was the photoprotective pigment, eumelanin (Photochemistry and Photobiology, 2000, Vol 72; 526-532).

In addition to the more than 100 volunteers treated under the Arizona IND programme, EpiTan has now treated a further 71 volunteers in Australia in two studies and added to the safety data as well as providing strong evidence for the protective nature of the induced skin melanin against the harmful rays of the sun. The most recent study results showed that skin melanin could be nearly doubled in some fair-skinned volunteers (who are most at risk of sunburn injury) and that increased melanin was associated with a halving of the cell damage caused by UV exposure at three times their minimal erythema (skin reddening) level.

Melanotan is scheduled to be available in 2006, after the successful completion of clinical trial programs and registration with regulatory authorities.

Corporate Alliances/Partnerships

Since its formation, EpiTan has worked diligently to establish strong collaborative research partnerships with leading researchers in the fields of cancer research, drug delivery and epidemiology.

Australian research partnerships are with Monash University and the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science. The company also works collaboratively with the Menzies Centre for Population Research. (??)

EpiTan has the exclusive right to any intellectual property developed under the research agreements with Monash University and IMVS and expects new patents to be filed as a result of this work.

The company has an on-going relationship with the inventors of Melanotan including Professor Robert Dorr, Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Pharmacology Research Program at the Arizona Cancer Center who is a consultant with the company.

EpiTan has also appointed Dr Perry Robins, an eminent New York-based skin cancer specialist, to facilitate the expansion of EpiTan's clinical trials into the USA and Europe. Dr Robins is Professor of Dermatology and Chief of the Mohs Micrographic Surgery Unit at New York University Medical Center and founder and president of the Skin Cancer Foundation, an international organisation dedicated to skin cancer research and education.

Partnering opportunities

EpiTan is pursuing partnering opportunities to expand its product base and accelerate its clinical trial, drug development and commercialisation programs.






Contact
Iain Kirkwood


Job Title
Chief Administrative Officer

Address

[align=left]Level 10 52 Collins Street[/align]

City/Suburb

[align=left]Melbourne
Victoria 3000 Australia[/align]

Email

[align=left]iain.Kirkwood@epitan.com.au[/align]

Phone
+61 3 9662 4688

Fax
+61 3 9662 4788

Website
www.epitan.com.au

instead of starting a new thread I'll just add this on this existing thread, an interesting little article on the mistreatments of zimababwean albino's. anyways for those interested. 2 out every 10,000. that's a lot more than I'd expected.confused3

Not Black Enough

Creator: Libby Young

SOUTH AFRICA, Nov 26

Africa's albinos are perhaps the last minority group to find a voice. Treated like outcasts from birth, albinos are shunned and even murdered. But now, albinos are mobilising, starting in Zimbabwe. Tichaona Zinhumwe reports.

ALBINOS in Zimbabwe complain that they are despised and shunned by other Zimbabweans because of their skin colour and, generally, treated like second-class citizens.

Very few Zimbabweans accept albinos, says Dr John Makumbe, founder member of a new trust that sets out to help albinos. ''Traditionally albinos used to be killed and ostracised like lepers,'' recalled Makumbe, who is an albino.

According to Makumbe and other albinos, the discrimination starts from birth, and even today, albinos are still treated like social outcasts. The persecution, Makumbe said, is more noticeable during childhood. ''When I went to school the other children refused to share the desk or books with me,'' he said.

''Even now, if I happen to be the first passenger, the bus has to be full for someone to join me on the seat. If they sit with me they desperately avoid to be in contact with me.''

The university lecturer explained that people often shun albinos - people with pale skin, hair and eyes due to lack of colouring matter - because of society's uninformed fear that albinism is infectious. Discrimination against albinos is also prevalent in different forms within the public and private sectors. Makumbe recalled that he had to fight ''very hard'' to receive full pension benefits after he joined the government Public Service in 1982.

He was put on a restricted pensions benefit scheme when he joined the civil service, while everybody else received their full benefits. As a result of Makumbe's struggle, all albinos now in the Public Service receive full pension benefits.

The Albino Trust of Zimbabwe (ATZ) was formed recently in the Zimbabwean capital to provide a forum for albinos to have a voice. ATZ also aims to protect albinos against persecution and to assist them with funds for health care. According to Makumbe, who is a Political Science Lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, one in every 5000 school children in Zimbabwe is an albino. Translated on a national level, this would mean that two in every 10,000 people in the country of about 11.5 million is an albino, he added.

The Trust has embarked on a vigorous educational and sensitisation campaign through the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation's (ZBC) Radio Four Educational Channel.

According to Dr Isdore Pazvakavambwa, the Trust has to counter a host of traditional beliefs and myths surrounding albinos. For example, he said, many women still spit when they see an albino. ''This bad habit is prevalent among women who believe if they don't spit, they will have an albino child,'' he said.

And when a woman does give birth to an albino child, she may be branded as an adultress by her family. ''My uncles and my late father believed that me and my brother were children of sin, born out of extra-marital affairs,'' said Letwin Karombo, adding that her mother was accused of having an affair with a white man.

Richard Nyathi, head librarian in the Ministry of Trade and Commerce whose albino brother died of skin cancer three months ago, said that the new organisation should explore ways to help albinos to access good health care. Many albinos, he added, cannot even afford sun cream lotions which protect their skin from the sun's rays.

Nyathi said the Trust should also encourage employers to not discriminate against albinos. ''If they call you for a job interview and discover you are an albino they will not give you the job, because they fear you might put off their clientele,'' he said, recalling incidents when potential employers turned him away because of his skin colour.

David Chimhini, the Executive Director of Zimrights, a human rights group here, said his organisation will support the Trust in its efforts to protect the rights of albinos. He also urged albinos in Zimbabwe to report any violation of their rights to his organisation and called on society to accept albinos as equal citizens.

Man........this is so sad, ignorance is a very terrible thing.