Chaos at USP as Courts Release Untested Drug for Cancer Treatment

10/15/2015 - 09h38

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MARCELO TOLEDO

SPECIAL ENVOY TO SÃO CARLOS

The chemistry institute at the University of São Paulo (USP) has become the site of a "pilgrimage", after the courts reversed their decision to suspend the release of a substance rumored to treat various types of cancer.

The rush of patients to the institute began on Friday (9) after the judge José Renato Nalini, president of the Courts of Justice, reconsidered a request for the suspension of the release of the substance phosphorylethanolamine.

The court's decision was based on a Supreme Court order authorizing the provision of phosphorylethanolamine capsules to a patient.

In the last two days, lines of people have formed at the university in search of the drug. Some believe that it could be the last chance to save themselves or their loved ones.

However, on Tuesday (13), people were told that the drug was not available, as USP did not have it in stock, and because the judicial orders would first have to be officially protocolled at the university.

It is "madness", according to the president of the Brazilian Society of Clinical Oncology, Evanius Wiermann. "The patients are being used as guinea pigs, without any guarantee of safety or efficacy," he says. The drug has yet to be tested on humans.

In an interview with the local press in August, the retired USP professor Gilberto Chierice, who had coordinated studies with phosphorylethanolamine, said the substance could cure cancer. This sparked the initial judicial appeals.

He also said that the drug had only not arrived on the market due to "lack of will" on the part of the authorities. Chierice was unavailable for comment.

In a statement, USP said that phosphorylethanolamine is not a cancer cure. It said it has been studied as a chemical product and that there is no "firm proof that it is effective against the disease."

It has been neither registered nor authorized for use by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), a state regulatory body similar to the Food and Drug Administration in the US.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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