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-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  There is a drug called Galavit used in Europe but not approved in the US yet that may also offer some hope to those exposed. Galavit is derived from compounds known as phthalazine diones. One of its main substances is amino-tetrahydrophthalazine—the same component in the Luminol used by crime scene investigators to detect traces of blood.
An article in the Spring 2009 Johns Hopkins Memory Bulletin1 said the history of this drug can be traced to the 1960s Soviet space program. The first Russian cosmonauts traveled through space in capsules that did not provide proper safeguards against radiation. Doctors noticed that many of these space pioneers developed serious health problems from radiation exposure, such as leukemia, lymphoma and skin cancers. As the cosmonauts' medical problems became more pronounced, the military dedicated itself to finding an effective treatment. Gslavit improves results of traditional cancer treatment(surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy). In Russia, Galavit has also been prescribed to treat a wide range of chronic inflammatory diseases, including illnesses with an autoimmune component—such as Crohn's disease, liver diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcers and ulcerative colitis and to treat immune deficiencies arising as side effects of radiation and chemotherapy.
Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091   2011-03-17 09:27  

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