The phenomenon of released‐activity. Reply on comment on Don et al.: Dose‐dependent antiviral activity of released‐active form of antibodies to interferon‐gamma against influenza A/California/07/09(H1N1) in murine model

Abstract

This text is aimed to provide the readers with detailed information about phenomenon of released-activity and reply on the specific risen questions.

Drug discovery today: no molecules required

“…Release-active ‘drugs’ (RADs)1–24 are manufactured by a single Russian company called OOO ‘NPF ‘Materia Medica Holding’ (MMH) 25 26. According to the original patent by its founder and CEO Epstein et al ,27 these preparations consist of ‘ activated forms of ultra-low doses of antibodies conventionally designated as potentiated (dynamised) antibodies (by analogy with the terminology used in homeopathic literature) for treatment of various pathological syndromes ’.…”

“…Plans to invade other markets are in motion: ‘ after a series of consultations and meetings with government medicine evaluation agencies (FDA, EMA and MHRA), we have obtained written conclusions enabling us to authorise our drugs as pharmacological (non-homeopathic) medicinal products in various pharmacotherapeutic groups. Currently, we are in the process of approving evaluation requirements for our products, taking into account their peculiarities and allowing their potential authorisation in the USA and Europe ’ 21. Indeed, there are 22 registered studies of RADs on clinicaltrials.gov.…”

“…Epstein was elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2016 based on works on release-activity. One of Epstein’s papers claims that ‘ More than 100 PhD theses have been defended in our field, more than 75 monographs and more than 1000 scientific articles have been published ’ 21…”

“…Notably, articles about RADs usually appear not in journals of complementary medicine, but in apparently respectable journals, published by PLOS, Springer, Elsevier and so on. Due to the large amount of such papers (we found >100 only in English),1–24 we were unable to investigate all of them, but the articles that we did analyse contained misleading descriptions of active substance concentrations, severe flaws in study design and methodology, as well as concealed conflict of interests (COI). In the designated section, authors did not mention that MMH manufactures and sells RADs and holds the corresponding patents.…”

“…During the last fifteen years, numerous peer-reviewed journals published articles about the incredible properties of so-called release-active “drugs” (RADs) 1–24. It is claimed that these “drugs” are effective against tick-borne encephalitis, influenza, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, meningococcal meningitis, herpes, HIV, and other viral and bacterial infections, diabetes, erectile dysfunction, sleep disorders, obesity, chronic inflammatory joint diseases, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, chronic cerebral ischemia, benign prostatic hypertrophy, alcoholism, allergies, and many other health problems 18 25.…”