Across three continents, brain-damaged patients are reporting remarkable improvements after taking a pill that should make them fall asleep but that, instead, appears to be waking up cells in their brains that were thought to have been dead. In the next two months, trials on patients are expected to begin in South Africa aimed at finding out exactly what is going on inside their heads. Because, at the moment, the results are baffling doctors.
The remarkable story of this pill and its active ingredient, zolpidem, begins in 1994 when Louis Viljoen, was hit by a truck while riding his bike. He suffered severe brain injuries that left him in a deep coma. Doctors expected him to die and told his mother, Sienie Engelbrecht, that he would never regain consciousness. "His eyes were open but there was nothing there," says Sienie, a sales rep. "I visited him every day for five years and we would speak to him but there was no recognition, no communication, nothing."
All day long at the store I speak to people and there is no recognition, no communication, nothing. In South Africa evidently this is considered a problem.
A problem closer to being solved not because of anything Big Pharma did in the pursuit of profit, but because:
The hospital ward sister, Lucy Hughes, was periodically concerned that involuntary spasms in Louis's left arm, that resulted in him tearing at his mattress, might be a sign that deep inside he might be uncomfortable. In 1999, five years after Louis's accident, she suggested to Sienie that the family's GP, Dr Wally Nel, be asked to prescribe a sedative. Nel prescribed Stilnox, the brand name in South Africa for zolpidem. "After about 25 minutes, I heard him making a sound like 'mmm'. He hadn't made a sound for five years."
"Then he turned his head in my direction. I said, 'Louis, can you hear me?' And he said, 'Yes.' I said, 'Say hello, Louis', and he said, 'Hello, mummy.' I couldn't believe it. I just cried and cried."
Hughes was called over and other staff members gathered in disbelief. "Sienie told me he was talking and I said he couldn't be - it wasn't possible," she recalls. "Then I heard him. His mother was speechless and so were we. It was a very emotional moment."
Sanofi-Aventis, which holds the original patent on zolpidem (Ambien) which is about to expire, must be thrilled. After all, it says on their web site:
Sanofi-Aventis brings to it's research creativity and innovation, with just one end in view; patient health.
Just one end in view. Hmmmmmmmm.......back to the Guardian:
The company that first developed zolpidem, Sanofi-Aventis, was contacted by Nel and Clauss but appears to have chosen not to become involved in the trials or the use of the drug on brain-damaged patients. Instead, the brain scans on up to 30 patients will be carried out at the Pretoria Academic Hospital by Professor Mike Sathekge, head of nuclear medicine, and Professor Ben Meyer, one of South Africa's most renowned physicians.
When contacted to explain this apparent disconnect between words and actions, Jean-François Dehecq, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sanofi-Aventis, said:
"Of course what we say on our website is a bunch of horse shit. The market for use of zolpidem in brain damaged patients is projected at $4.3 billion. Now I suppose we could spend our money going after a piece of that, or we could spend next to nothing to get a patent on Ambien CR, and continue to dominate the sleeping pill market, a market projected to be worth $11 billion by 2012. You do the math Einstein"
"A market, incidentally, we can grow with TV commercials and ads in Readers Digest" he added. "You'd have to have one hell of a marketing campaign to convince someone to go out and get a brain injury.*"
So yeah, good things are happening, but just remember what Big Pharma's commitment to patient health was. If you need another clue as to how the industry thinks, here's a cut and paste from an article I came across while hopping around the internet reading about the sleeping pill business:
Another drug on the market, Rozerem, the world's first non-addictive sleeping pill from the Japanese company Takeda, could very well get overlooked given the strength of the blockbuster sedatives, analysts say. Amusa has projected $300 million in sales by 2010, and said the fact it's not addictive is hurting sales.
Someone probably got fired over the fact he was behind bringing a sleeping pill to market that wasn't addictive. Idiot.
*The figures are real. The quotes are my interpretation of what Jean-François Dehecq would say in an alternate universe where no one lied.
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