You have commented 375 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Ex-Rad, the U.S. Military's Radiation Wonder Drug
2011-03-17
By Van Hipp

These are tragic and tense days indeed in Japan.

The immense loss of life and absolute devastation caused by last week’s earthquake and tsunami is heartbreaking – and serve as the culprits in this unimaginable tragedy. The tension, felt by its citizens and far beyond the country’s borders, centers most immediately on what happens next at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility.

Reports of radioactive contamination and a potential meltdown at the complex have many Americans wondering how prepared our own government would be in the event something similar occurred here. More specifically, could the the health of residents living near a severely damaged nuclear reactor in the U.S. be ensured?

Thanks to the advanced work of the men and women who develop our nation’s military medicine, the answer is yes – but only if the government now takes the necessary steps.
Long op-ed piece continues from here. If you go to the Onconova Therapeutics website here there's a short summary of the progress with the drug. The drug companies are heavily regulated by the FDA as to what they can say about drugs in development so what you have here is the bare minimum.

An abstract to a 2009 article in the journal Radiation Research makes clear that Ex-Rad works by a mechanism different than the usual radio-protective drugs, which function as free-radical scavengers or cell cycle arrestors.

Very interesting, and in an emergency like in Japan, one could see a scenario in which a nuclear plant worker hit with a lethal dose of radiation might get the drug even though it hasn't been completely tested, let alone approved.
Posted by:Steve White

#1  comments); ?>werwer
Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091   2011-03-17 09:27  

00:00