Accra, Nov. 08, – The Centre for
Plant Medicine Research (CPMR) on Wednesday launched ‘URO 500,’ a herbal drug
for the management of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), a non-malignant
enlargement of the prostate gland among men.
The drug, has been proven to be
efficacious through several tests, and produced with extracts from the Croton
membranaceus plant.
Dr. Alfred Ampomah Appiah, CPMR
Deputy Executive Director, said a prostate enlargement was a common condition
among men aged 30 years and above.
The condition, he said, has been
found to affect eight per cent of men aged 31 to 40 years; 40 to 50 per cent of
those aged 51 to 60 years; and 80 per cent of men above 80 years.
Dr Appiah stated this during the
launch of the URO 500 product at this year’s Dr. Oku Memorial Symposium in
Accra.
He said in Ghana, the prevalence
rate of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) in the Greater Accra alone is
125,443 based on the 2000 Population and Housing Census, with between $300-550
individual costs of medications per annum.
He said whiles in the United
States of America direct costs of medical services for BPH management was
estimated to exceed US$1.1 billion annually.
The main predisposing factors for
BPH were age and the presence of the testes in men, as well as some nutritional
factors, oxidative stress, and is symptomised by difficulty in urinary flow,
frequent urination, incomplete emptying of the bladder, painful urination and
lack of voluntary control over urination among others.
Dr. Appiah stated that aside the
removal of testes, there were two main categories of medical treatment for BPH:
Alpha blockers like terazosin and alfuzocin, and 5a-reductase inhibitors such
as finasteride and dutasterise, both of which have side effects.
The URO 500 however, has been proven
to enhance urination in BPH patients without accompanying difficulty,
significantly reduced symptoms in the first three weeks of treatment, relieve
painful urination in patients within six hours and reduce prostate size within
three months.
He noted that the drug held
prospects for job creation and wealth creation as the price of croton seedling
was GH₵15.00 per unit, while
the producer price of the plant stood at GH₵250.00 per kilogram thus farmers cultivating the plant could
make GH₵1million per every
four acres cultivated in two years.
“The biological properties and
the clinical effects of URO 500 provide the necessary scientific bases for its
promotion and use in the management of BPH,” he stated.
The Symposium was on the theme:
‘Plant Medicine for Health and wealth: Moving towards a Ghana beyond Aid’
sought to highlight the great potential of herbal and traditional medicine in
the country.
Professor Augustine Ocloo, CPMR
Executive Director in an interview with Ghana News Agency, said the product had
the potential to alleviate the suffering of a significant proportion of Ghana’s
population.
However, the Centre had a limited
capacity to meet the demand for the product due to challenges with availability
of raw materials and lack of appropriate equipment for mass production.
The issue of availability of raw
material had been largely solved by the implementation of out-grower scheme for
the plant, by raising the seedlings and supplying to farmers, who grow them and
supply to the Centre.
“We’ve solved the issue of raw of
materials; the problem we have now is the issue of machinery. It’s a capsule,
so if we want to be efficient, we need a fully automated encapsulation machine
and machines for the processing before encapsulation,” he stated.
He underscored the need for
increased investment in the Centre, adding that they were developing a business
plan to help them attract investors for their work.
GNA
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