Todoxin against AIDS/HIV

DEUTSCHE AIDS-HILFE e. V.

Issue 11/1998 of 08/06/1998

Introductory remark

In regard with so called "alternative" medicaments there has been a discussion going on for some time about a preparation called "TODoXIN". There is too little information on the effectiveness of this preparation, but the articles are circulating on the topic of "the medicine: 'TODoXIN'" expressing excitement or rejection. As far as we know, there are no underpinned contributions in which all the knowledge would be critically worked out and summarized. By the following detailed article we wish to fill this gap.

Introduction

"TODoXIN" is a herbal remedy which has been applied on over 7,000 patients in the cases of different (oncogen) viruses and against HIV-infection effects for 10 years. It was developed by Dr. Todor Jovanovic, a physician born in Vrani Do, Kosovo, in 1935. Dr. Jovanovic studied medicine in Belgrade and finished his specialization in Allergology. After the graduation he carried out research in the UN Research Centre for Nuclear Medicine and in military research centre in Vinca, near Belgrade. The main field of the research was search for histocompatible materials for implantats. Another field of intensive work was the research and monitoring of immunostimulating effects of plant extracts.

In 1987, Dr. Jovanovic applied for a patent on TODoXIN recipe. After that, he made an effort to get the support of experts and institutions in the country and abroad for his projects. There were, among others, the president of Serbian Academy of Science and Art, Dusan Kanazir, Luk Montagnier, the man who discovered HIV, as well as the leader of the special program of WHO for AIDS, Jonathan Man.

Because of the sparse data, no one showed interest for that project, except for the leader of a research group from Austria. With the Austrian partners in the research, Dr. Jovanovic signed a long-term contract on cooperation in 1988. The goal of the cooperation was to test the remedy on the international scale, galenic development and later, submission of the appropriate study results, obtaining the international approval and production.

After it has been proved toxicologically safe in 1988, the Austrian team, in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute for Immunology in Stockholm, in 1988-89, succeeded in showing the immunostimulating properties of TODoXIN in vitro, as well as the development of pharmacodynamic model of effect mechanisms induced on the immuoendocrinal level. That model could have been tested ex vitro and and confirmed in vivo. It was followed by intensive medical observation of its use, in collaboration with some clinical workers and physicians, in a wide spectrum of potential indications for immunostimulating properties of TODoXIN. On the basis of the data obtained by early 1991, the scientists of National Institutes of Health (NIH), in Washington, expressed their readiness to examine TODoXIN in vitro within the "Developmental Therapeutics Program". The studies of HIV culturing proved that cell bearable concentrations of active agents of TODoXIN can inhibit HIV up to 100%.

At the end of 1991 TODoXIN was given the license for production in Yugoslavia under the register number 4684 dd 31/10/88, as a "dietetic product based on honey and medicinal herbs ". The records on HIV- inhibiting capacity of TODoXIN, obtained at NIH, as well as the results of HIV-positive patients treated with TODoXIN since 1988, were not presented until the 10th International Conference on AIDS in Yokohama (1994), because NIH which was late in giving the permission for releasing the data.

On the basis of these data the Austrian research group succeeded in winning over the European virologists and AIDS researchers, prof. Richard Teddar and Dr. Clive Loveday from UCL Medical School of London, to the scientific collaboration. The data jointly won over the years that followed were appraised and designated as “very promising" by members of the British Medical Research Council – MRC and HIV Clinical Trial Centre – prof. A. Brackenridge, prof. D. Jeefries, prof. I. Weller and Dr J. Darbyshire.

On the 11. International AIDS Conference in Vancouver (1996), an official symposium on TODoXIN was held, where the most recent data were presented.

After that, the Department for Retro virology of Royal Free Medical School in London came up with offer to carry out further studies in England under official supervision of pharmaceutical authorities, MRC and one ethical committee. The results of these studies were supposed to support the official request for registration of TODoXIN in the European Union. The study started, after longer preparations, in September 1997, after it had been established that TODoXIN is to be produced in the future by Dr. Jovanovic together with an Austrian partner in the research, within one Austrian firm.

In the course of the study, Dr. Jovanovic decided to accept the offers of English researchers and their American partners to have TODoXIN produced in the USA in the future and to carry out further study over there. In order to present data which were up-to-date in 1998. to American partners, the London study, started in 1997, was interrupted in March 1998, and a new study was started, using the first laboratory samples of American TODoXIN. A separate American study is still about to start this year in California. Therefore, for the precaution sake, no new TODoXIN data were presented in the 12th International AIDS Conference in Geneva.