Canova launches homoepathic drug to treat cancer, AIDS

Ahmedabad, May 25 (UNI) Canova Homoeopathic, promoted by a non-resident Indian, has launched a homoeopathic medicine ''Canova'' for the treatment of cancer, AIDS and other immune-compromised diseses like psoriasis, hepatitis, pneumonia and tuberculosis.

Announcing the national launch here yesterday, company chairman Harshad C Patel said the drug was first used by Dr Francisco Canova on his ailing mother in Brazil in 1959, who lived a healthy life for 15 more years. It was subsquently clincially tested in several countries in Latin America and Africa.

He said that clinical tests were being carried out in India too.

It is being tested on patients in Mumbai since December last year, which is scheduled to conclude in June. Similar tests have begun on affected people at Nizam Institute of Medicine at Hyderabad in February and will soon begin at Karamsad Hospital near Anand in Gujarat.

The drug has been approved by World Health Organisation (WHO). It has been listed with USFDA and drug control administrations of other countries. It has been approved by Drug Controller General of India, besides drug administrations of several state governments.

Mr Patel said it is a pure homoeopathic medicine, a combination of five ingredients, availabale in liquid and inhalant forms. Like other homoeopathic medicines, it is available Over The Counter (OTC), but doctors' advice is preferred.

Explaining how the medicine works, Dr Nilesh D Naik, director of the company, pointed out that it does not cure cancer or AIDS, but halts and slows down the growth of cancerous cells and resuscitates a depressed immune system. It reduces pain, debility and helps patient regain appetite and general health.

Dr Naik said the formula was developed 50 years back by Dr Canova in Brazil, after whom the medicine has been named. But, it was Dr Dorley Buchi who conducted tests on mice at Univesity of Parana in 1990s. The research showed activation of macrophages in the mice within 48 hours of administration.

Enthused by its success, she continued research with the medicine for other immune compromised diseases. It was susbsequently approved for use in Brazil and other Latin American countries for Cancer and HIV/AIDS.

He said the clinical test of the drug was first conducted in Africa on a group of 60 patients at Gabane village in Botswana in November 2003.

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