IT wasn’t that long ago futurists’ predictions for human wellbeing centred on the taking of a pill.
Modern medicine has provided a wider array of solutions than simply dropping a tablet down the hatch, yet the hope of cures in such a form still attract the attention of those who popularise science.
The latest example is the work of Perth medical researcher, associate professor Manfred Beilharz, the University of Western Australia’s School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences chair of microbiology and immunology, who has attracted recent headlines offshore for his work in Perth.
Professor Beilharz is within days of receiving the results of human trials of a lozenge that could be used to prevent colds and flu, something that has become of great interest to world health organisations with the rising threat of fast-moving viruses such as swine flu.
Sponsored by the WA Health Department and the US-based Amarillo Biosciences, the research at the QEII Medical Centre in Nedlands involves 200 people.
The trial benefited from its timing, with recruitment commencing in May, just as swine flu was raising alarm bells globally.
Amarillo is focused on research into the use of low-dose, orally administered interferon alpha as a treatment for a variety of conditions.
“I have been working on this oral interferon stuff for 12 years,” the affable Professor Beilharz said.
“We finally have a big human trial on now. We’ll have good statistical validity to see if it works.”
Professor Beilharz, who credited pathologist David Smith as a joint chief clinical adviser on the project, said the trial had been internationally followed and media in Britain, where winter has again caused concerns with regard to swine flu, had recently picked up on the significance of his work.
“We are a week away from knowing the primary data, if it is positive, is a reasonably big thing,” he said.
