Glaxo 'red wine' drug study suspended

A GlaxoSmithKline company spokeswoman said on Tuesday that the trial of SRT501 in patients with multiple myeloma had been suspended after a number of them developed a complication generally associated with the disease, which is a type of blood cancer. The mid-stage Phase II study, conducted in Britain and Denmark, was assessing the safety and tolerability of SRT501 with or without the established cancer drug Velcade from Takeda Pharmaceutical. SRT501 is a proprietary formulation of resveratrol, a substance found in grapes and in red wine. The clinical trial was started in March 2009 and was due to run until December 2010. It was suspended prematurely following "unexpected safety events," according to an update to the clinicaltrials.gov database.

Bonnie - this is another example of trying to "chemicalize" nature. Red wine and it's powerful phytochemical, resveratrol, has beneficial properties as nature intended. However, resveratrol is not for everyone. Now, when you start to remove specific chemicals and make them synthetic, the human body is not always going to recognize them as beneficial substances.

The human body has harmoniously evolved with plants and plant substances in their natural state. Once synthesized into something that our epigenetic code does not recognize, you have situations such as this Glaxo trial, especially when testing on sick individuals.