Hot flashes afflict most
menopausal women, with some experiencing severe and disruptive hot flashes,
seven or more times a day, for many years. Fortunately, new discoveries may
offer relief -- without the use of controversial hormone replacement
therapies.
Drs. Isaac Cohen and Mary Tagliaferri, and their team at Bionovo, Inc.,
have developed an oral drug designed to minimize a woman's vasomotor
symptoms, such as hot flashes and night sweats. The non-steroidal
estrogen-receptor beta compound is based on plant extracts discovered by
Company scientists. Clinical studies demonstrated that the novel
plant-based therapy is safe and well tolerated by menopausal women.
"At present, women contemplating hormone replacement therapy for relief
of hot flashes and other menopause-related symptoms still face confusion
and controversy," says Dr. Tagliaferri, Bionovo's Medical Director. "Many
health professionals have no ready answers to offer women about the
risk-benefit ratio with regard to the heart, breast, bone density, skin
condition and other areas of the body that could be affected. This leaves
women up in the air on the value of taking estrogen at all."
An alternative to estrogen: Bionovo's proprietary oral treatment, MF
101. The drug is now being tested in a multi-center, randomized,
placebo-controlled Phase II Clinical Study, designed to evaluate, in
postmenopausal women, the change in frequency and severity of hot flashes
from baseline to 12 weeks. Dr. Deborah Grady, renowned authority figure on
women's health at the University of California, San Francisco, is serving
as the Principal Investigator of the study. Recruitment for the trial is
also taking place at the University of Alabama, the University of Minnesota
and the University of Tennessee.
The women in the trial, ages 40-60, experience seven or more hot
flashes a day, or more than 50 a week. A total of 180 women are taking the
drug for three months; 60 will be randomized to take dose one of MF101, 60
will take dose two, and 60 will receive a placebo.
For more information, visit bionovo.
Bionovo, Inc.
bionovo