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Revolutionary blood purifier developed

Aethlon Medical's Hemopurifier may become India 's first line of defence in dengue treatment. It may also filter out the HIV virus.

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WASHINGTON, DC: A Californian medical devices company and a leading hospital in New Delhi have just completed the first trial of a device that could revolutionise the treatment of diseases like Dengue and AIDS. It’s called Hemopurifier, and its concept is pretty simple — this cartridge-like device, when attached to a designated part of the body, continuously filters viruses and toxins in the blood, and then returns purified blood right back into circulation.

Aethlon Medical has spent millions of dollars in research, and scores of scientists and doctors have spent thousands of manhours to develop the product which, incidentally, is also being submitted to the US Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense as a therapeutic countermeasure against a wide range of biological weapons.

In India, it has tied up with the capital’s Apollo Hospital. “The opportunity to help infected patients in India is staggering,” says James Joyce, chairman and CEO of Aethlon Medical. “The Hemopurifier’s first target would likely be dengue which kills thousands every year. If everything goes well in our Indian trials, we will look to commercialise the device for next year’s Dengue season in September.”

The Indian trials are led by Vijay Kher, a leading nephrologist. “In our first trial,” says Joyce, “we demonstrated the device’s safety in individuals with severely compromised health conditions. Twenty-four treatments were administered to four patients who were afflicted with both kidney failures and hepatitis-C. The results have been encouraging.”

Aethlon Medical is also working other agencies like the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and the National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) to advance Hemopurifier testing. Says Joyce, “With the ICMR, we are specifically discussing efficacy tests for Dengue. It is a disease that normally peaks in India after the monsoon between September and October. This year, we would be conducting human trials during the peak season, and going by its effectiveness would seek to market the Hemopurifier as a treatment for dengue next year.

Aethlon Medical is undecided on the pricing, but would closely work with the government on this, says Joyce. “We decided to work in India because of the opportunity it provides to start helping people, combined with the reality of a lengthy and an expensive regulatory effort for chronic disease conditions in the US.”

He adds: “I have observed that US companies die despite having great scientific ideas because they are unable to overcome American regulatory and commercialisation challenges. Having the opportunity to demonstrate that our science helps people to recover from viral infections will certainly be advantageous to future commercialisation efforts beyond India. It is also important to recognise that we are not making dramatic claims of a miracle cure for Dengue or for AIDS. All we are saying is that that the Hemopurifier can reduce viral load so that the patient’s own immune response has a greater opportunity to fight off infection. How successful we will be in doing so, I think we will be able to answer that before the end of 2007.”

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