To the alarm of some government health officials, President Trump has expressed enthusiasm for the Food and Drug Administration to permit an extract from the oleander plant to be marketed as a dietary supplement or, alternatively, approved as a drug to cure COVID-19, despite lack of proof that it works. FDA: Company that studied ‘Oleandrin’ as drug barred from marketing it as supplement, Allowed HTML tags: . The homeopathic product was rolled out to the public by Phoenix Biotechnology, Inc. in October. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. He cited such adverse effects as abdominal pain, cardiovascular symptoms, diarrhea, nausea, peripheral neuritis and vomiting. Ben Carson says he used unproven COVID-19 treatment recommended by MyPillow CEO. “In the course of that analysis, we got really remarkable results—an average 20,000-fold reduction in viral infectivity,” Whitney said, adding the reduction occurred within 24 hours. Copyright © 2021. Trump allies push for FDA to approve another untested Covid treatment - extract from toxic oleander plant. Whitney said Phoenix Biotechnology also shared anecdotal evidence with FDA related to COVID-19 as well, although he confirmed such data was not public. www.MyOleander.com Yes, yes, yes, and yes! And while there’s no evidence it has any beneficial effects against Covid-19, there’s ample evidence that it’s dangerous. “UNPA will promptly inform the U.S. FDA if an oleander dietary supplement is promoted for sale.”, https://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/sites/all/themes/penton_subtheme_naturalproductsinsider/images/logos/footer.png. A biopharmaceutical firm stands by the safety of the plant compound oleander amid reports in the mainstream press that the Trump administration is being lobbied to support an unproven and dangerous product to treat COVID-19. “That’s when you discover that the virus struggles to get a foothold,” Whitney said. Housing Secretary Ben Carson is crediting unapproved, experimental treatments with saving his life after he became "desperately ill" following his infection with the coronavirus. “Consumers should not, ever, try to make a home-made remedy from or self-treat with oleander.”. In laboratory experiments at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, researchers exposed green monkey liver cells to the coronavirus and introduced Phoenix Biotechnology’s product to see how it would react. The memo quoted Ph.D.-educated experts who raised concerns about the plant, including Paula Brown of BCIT and Ikhlas Khan of the NCNPR. “Indeed, among the responses to the more than 1,000 NDI notifications released by FDA to date, AHPA identified only seven expressing known safety concerns in this manner,” the trade association said in a statement.
In Vitro Study. Lindell, who thanked God that Trump got elected in a White House speech back in March, promoted oleandrin during a White House meeting with Trump in July.There’s no public data that oleandrin, an extract from the toxic oleander plant, has ever been tested in humans or animals against COVID-19.. Phoenix Biotechnology has studied oleander for a quarter century and is pursuing two very distinct avenues with FDA. Natural Products Insider is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC. “In the course of doing that, you’d have to consume an entire pint of oil. In FDA phase 1 and 2 human clinical trials for a cancer application, the compound was shown to be safe, he told Natural Products Insider in an interview. Oleander, she said, is a member of the dogbane family, which translates to "bane to dogs," and is part of the botanical family Apocynaceae, named after Apocynum, Greek for "dog away." Claim: I can 100% confirm...Dr. Ben Carson is talking about a powerful therapeutic...this product right here, you can get it at MyOleander.com A large white- or pink-flowering bush or small tree, oleander is grown as an ornamental plant in many parts of the U.S. and elsewhere, including North Africa, the Mediterranean and southwestern Asia, according to the advisory. Oleandrin for COVID … It was through the MyPillow boss Lindell that Whitney gained an Oval Office meeting with the president, first reported by the Washington Post. With COVID-19 cases and deaths rising in the US and globally, identifying new therapies to prevent and combat the virus is a top priority. ", He added a caveat. Trump's latest gambit comes after his optimistic overtures about intravenous disinfectant, UV light and hydroxychloroquine. Phoenix Biotechnology has studied oleander for a quarter century and is pursuing two very distinct avenues with FDA. Antiviral effects of cardiac glycosides have been shown against a range of viruses, including Herpes, Ebola, influenza and chikungunya virus. Lindell, who also sits on the board of directors of Phoenix Biotechnology and has invested in the company, told Cooper he’s been taking oleander since April. This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. The paper said that their tests showed 'the strong inhibitory profile of oleandrin in greatly reducing infectious virus production.'. “People can get all caught up in this idea that oleander is this poisonous plant,” Whitney said. Oleandrin - an extract of the plant known for its pink and white flowers - was shown to inhibit the coronavirus in the kidneys of monkeys, in a July study by University of Texas at Galveston. Loren Israelsen is president of the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA), an international association representing the dietary supplement industry. Registered in England and Wales. "With respect to oleander, all parts of the plant are highly toxic, dangerous and life-threatening when ingested," Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council (ABC), a nonprofit, international member-based organization, said in a consumer advisory. But Phoenix Biotechnology would need to overcome "the well-known safety concerns associated with oleander, and FDA has already spoken on this issue in the context of a new dietary ingredient notification," he explained. “I heard about the oleander extract from Mike,” Carson, a former neurosurgeon, said in an interview, according to the Washington Post. UTMB also examined what happens if the cells were exposed to the product and the virus was introduced several hours later.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and MyPillow boss Mike Lindell, a big Trump supporter, have urged Trump to look at the botanical extract, Meeting arranged by the pair with a director at company developing the product, Andrew Whitney, of Phoenix Biotechnology, claims he is '100%' sure it's a cure, But there is no peer-reviewed study to support the claim, Lindell says that in the meeting, Trump 'basically said the FDA should approve it', Senior administration official expressed deep concern that Carson and Lindell were 'pushing a dubious product at the highest levels' during the pandemic. Neither oleander nor oleandrin is approved by regulatory agencies as a prescription drug or dietary supplement. Alarmed health officials say Donald Trump is pushing for FDA approval of an oleander plant extract to cure coronavirus. Botanical experts, on the other hand, warned oleander is dangerous and can even cause death. While Whitney acknowledged eating an oleander plant from someone’s back yard could be extremely toxic, he stressed the company’s extract, oleandrin, is safe, based on human oncological trials. The businessman, who talks to sleepless potential customers behind a mirror in one of … Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. “This thing works,” Lindell said in a testy interview this week with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Whitney said Phoenix Biotechnology has been in conversations with FDA to bring the substance to market as a dietary supplement; and, when asked if the company had submitted an NDIN to the agency, he answered in the affirmative. Dangerous Oleander Extract Not a COVID-19 Cure — "That would definitely end up killing people" by Kristina Fiore , Director of Enterprise & Investigative … Andrew Whitney, director and vice chairman of Phoenix Biotechnology Inc. in San Antonio, Texas, said his company has studied oleander for a quarter century and is pursuing two avenues with FDA—to bring it to market as a drug to treat COVID-19 and separately to sell it as a dietary supplement. oleander for covid 2021