The first anti-aging drug astragalus extract ta-65 is accused of commercial fraud

"You will receive my lawyer's letter," Brian Egan told his boss on the last day of his workday nearly a year ago Egan filed a class action lawsuit last week, referring to the commercial fraud involved in the propaganda of a proprietary herbal extract, which is expected to reverse the effects of aging, by telemerase activation Sciences (TA Sciences) In response, Noel Patton, President of TA Sciences, denied all allegations, "we stand by what we say," he added Telomere is a DNA DNA repeat sequence located at the end of chromosome With the protection of telomere, the end of chromosome will not be automatically repaired by the cellular repair mechanism mistakenly considering it as DNA fragment The 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded to three American scientists for "discovering how telomeres and telomerase protect chromosomes." Telomere will become shorter with the cell division When it is too short, the cell will stop dividing, and eventually step to aging and death The length of telomere depends on the activity of telomerase, but telomerase is usually only activated in human stem cells, germ cells, immune cells and malignant cancer cells, and telomerase in other adult cells is in the "off" state Biologists have been trying to control the aging process by blocking the mechanism of telomere shortening In the past, scientists have confirmed that the brain degradation and testicular shrinkage of mice with loss of functional telomerase by genetic engineering can be reversed when telomerase is reactivated The results have sparked a lot of hype and encouraged some copycat companies to assess an individual's "biological life span" based on the length of telomeres In 2001, the biotechnology giant jeron Biomedical Company isolated a molecule named ta-65 from Astragalus, a Chinese herbal medicine, and claimed that it could enhance the activity of telomerase Then jeron biomedical licensed its products to ta Sciences, a New York based pharmaceutical company, which purified and concentrated the ta-65 molecule extracted from Astragalus membranaceus and developed it into a nutritional supplement, promoting its ability to extend shortened telomeres The pill can generate $6 million in annual revenue in the United States alone "It's great that a compound can extend telomeres, but we need to test it rigorously," said Carol Greider, a molecular biologist at Johns Hopkins University and Nobel laureate In the past, studies sponsored by TA Sciences and other companies have confirmed that ta-65 can prolong the telomere length of mice and humans But Greider and others are skeptical of the analysis Calvin Harley, now president of telome health, who led the research at jeron as chief technology officer, insisted that ta-65 was a "weak telomere activator." However, Ta Sciences sells these pills in the form of nutritional supplements or "health products" rather than as drugs The company's health statement has not been evaluated by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Difficult relationship in May 2011, Patton hired Egan to help expand TA Sciences' access to overseas markets Egan was asked to take ta-65 twice a day, and later wrote in a differential lawsuit: "I can tell customers that I also take the product, and it's safe and effective." Patton denied it was mandatory On September 14, Egan said he told Patton he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer The next day, according to Egan, Patton fired him and said his prostate cancer would destroy the company Egan said that when he was fired, he was offered a cash settlement to keep his mouth shut about cancer, but he refused Patton denied Egan's version of the event Egan was fired for poor sales performance, according to an affidavit filed by Patton in a differential suit Patton said in his confession that when told to dismiss, Egan threw his key at the boss and said it would be resolved "one-on-one." One of the employees released the confrontation and Egan rushed out Egan also denied Patton's claims about the incident On September 19, Egan told TA sciences that a potential partner in Spain had cancer while taking ta-65 Patton and Ta Sciences sued Egan for defamation in March, claiming it cost the company $2 million in sales Patton said TA Sciences believed that if Egan had cancer, it would have been before he started taking ta-65 Egan upheld his charges and filed a class action suit with another user of ta-65 with the New York State High Court on July 23 to attack the company more broadly The lawsuit refutes several statements on the TA Sciences website, including assertions that ta-65 can extend telomeres Greider suspects that ta-65c causes Egan's cancer, but agrees that the science behind it is ambiguous A telomere prolonging compound is a boon to dying patients with bone marrow failure and pulmonary fibrosis, and she said the company expects to explore its medicinal potential "I don't believe a company will just sell it as a health product," she said.