New Drug derived from (Ophio-) Cordyceps sinensis

Submitted by cordyceps on Wed, 02/02/2011 - 23:00

It took me four months to finally add a new entry here yesterday - I spend much more time on my web pages at www.MushRoaming.com - and today this comes through the news ticker: 

Himalayan Fungus Aids Mitsubishi Tanabe Sales With Multiple Sclerosis Drug 
written by Kanoko Matsuyama in Tokyo for Bloombergs.


Apparently, Gilenya, as it is marketed by Novartis, a new promising Multiple Sclerosis drug has been developed from Cordyceps sinensis. Twenty five years ago the researcher Tetsuro Fujita had the idea to use Cordyceps since it must suppress the immune system of the ghost moths it feeds on in the Highlands of Tibet and the Himalayas. 

We do not know if any real Cordyceps is used as raw material, but the price of a monthly dose of $3000 could suggest that, however pharmaceutical companies probably would charge the same amount if the base was regular straw and the patients in dire need. The analysts are hearing  the cash registers ringing out loud . It is speculated that they might make soon 5 billion a year in global annual sales and make it under the top ten drugs, no not most expensive, just highest grossing drugs. 

The article mentions the meaning of the Chinese and Japanese name of Cordyceps as "Winter worm, summer plant", in Chinese it is cao = grass, but fails to mention that these names are translations of the original Tibetan name Yartsa gunbu "summer grass, winter worm". It would have been nice if Tibetan medicine gets the credit it deserves, since it was first used in Tibet. And also its first record dates to the late 15th century doctor Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorje. And what about not only a credit to the roots of this medicinal, but to Tibetan Medicine for having discovered the medicinal value of this weird organism? And once in the dream state, what about a slice of Mitsubishi Tanabe & Novartis pharma profit pie for the further development of Tibetan medicine?   

Image of Cordyceps subsessilis from D. Shimizu and K. Kobayashi 1997. Illustrated Vegetable Wasps and Plant Worms in Colour, Tokyo.


Interestingly, no mentioning in the article of Ciclosporin, another famous drug that has been developed from Cordyceps, but another species Cordyceps subsessilis. Ciclosporin, is used to suppress immune reaction after organ transplants, a procedure not possible without immuno-suppression. It was originally derived from Tolypocladium inflatum and only later recognized as the true anamorph [meaning an asexually often mold like state] of C. subsessilis by Cornell mycologist Kathy Hodge and others.

Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorje in a contemporary Yartsa Gunbu Thangka



The Men-tsee-khang webpage reports about Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorje

Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorjee was born to Rigzin Phuntsok and the daughter of Kunkyen Tashi Namgyal in the Earth Sheep year. He learned Buddhist philosophy and medicine from many renowned scholars and, at the age of 16, he wrote Manngag-Jewa-Ringsel (Pith Instructions, Relics in Crores, [better translated as "Instructions on a Myriad of Medicines"]) and many other treatises. He was the founder of the Zurlug tradition of Tibetan medicine. Later, his grandson Zurkhar Lodoe Gyalpo wrote a commentary on rGyud-bzhi called Mepoi Zallung (Oral Instructions of my Forefathers).

 

Last edited on Sun, September 16, 2012, 4:20 am