I've been meaning to start a blog for some time, I was sitting at the computer nursing my one year old baby when she fell asleep. So I begin my inaugural post with a sleeping baby on my lap (lets hope that is an auspicious sign of things to come). I'm going to start by airing my concerns over Afexa Life science and their use of Alberta Health Services logo in their advertisements for clinical trials of their product in children. Now Afexa life Sciences makes some extraordinary claims on the efficacy of their ginseng-based ColdFX product, backed up by their own clinical trials. These claims are based on weak data and have been readily dismantled by the folks at Ottawa Skeptics. Now that the market for children's cough and cold remedies has opened up, the folks at ColdFX see an opportunity to market their expensive ginseng to anxious parents. Given that their previous clinical trials have been underwhelming I have a well formed hypothesis as to the results of the pediatric trials. Let me be clear I have no problem with the company conducting the pediatric trials with their product, this is how we assess weather a product is effective or not. I also don't have a problem with Alberta Health Services being involved, as long as they are there to ensure it is a placebo controlled, randomized, double-blind trial and that all the results (whether they support the use of the product or not) are made public. I also expect that within this role AHS and their members involved ought to be free of profit motive and hold no shares in the company. What I have a serious problem with is the use of the AHS logo to add legitimacy to their product before the trials have even started. Given that the company has a history of overselling clinical trial results, and a history of overselling their financial results too (back when they were CV technologies) I am not going to be holding my breath. I do not think that they will jepoardize their multi-million dollar profits for any amount of data, so my prediction is that we will see a kids ColdFX product on the shelves very shortly, perhaps the bottles will have cute Joannie Rochette or Don Cherry bobble head dolls!
Interesting this company has claims regarding evidence based natural health products and to do them credit they have identified and are seemingly taking strides to optimize the process of producing quality plant-based health products. There are individual studies linking their proprietary ginseng to specific cellular responses, but that does not translate into efficacy in a human taking an oral dose. They have a job posting for a lab technician which has been up for a couple months, I really should apply I would be an ideal candidate I have most of the experience (except working with a flow cytometer, but I am a quick learner!). Alternatively you can hire me as the process scientist as I have experience in plant-based pharmaceutical production so I am very appealing candidate. So Aflexa let me know, I am listening.
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