Stirling Products receives key US grant for ImmunoXel product, for treatment of TB and AIDS

Australian healthcare company Stirling Products Limited (ASX: STI) has received a grant from the US Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF) to conduct a doubleblind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of its botanical immunomodulator ImmunoXel.
ImmunoXel is Stirling’s flagship product for the treatment of TB and AIDS. Treatment options for patients in Africa are very limited. ImmunoXel's progress will be watched avidly in the clinical trial.
In earlier published clinical trials, the oral immunomodulating supplement ImmunoXel has been shown to be very safe and highly effective as an immune adjuvant in TB patients - including patients with multi-drug (MDR-TB) and extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB).
Similar benefits were observed in patients with TB who were also dually infected with HIV (TB/HIV).
The U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF) is a non-profit organization authorized by the U.S. Congress and established in 1995 by the National Science Foundation.
The recognition by the CRDF is a milestone and springboard for development of ImmunoXel. The CRDF award is recognition of the potential of ImmunoXel especially in terms its immunomodulating property as an adjunct for treatment of HIV and TB.
While these earlier results were published in at least a dozen of peer-reviewed medical journals, no double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials have been conducted to date.
The CRDF grant will allow trial investigators to carry out the trial, the results of which are expected to become public toward the end of this year.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that globally, about one-third of the world’s population is infected with the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria that cause TB, and each year approximately 9 million people become ill with the disease, and 2 million of those die.
TB patients with HIV are 30 times more likely to die and treatment options for them are limited.
The WHO's annual report on TB issued in 2009 – indicated that one in four tuberculosis deaths is HIV related, which is twice as many as had been recognized previously.
Treatment options in many countries, particularly African nations, are extremely limited.  http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/3644/stirling-products-receives-key-us-grant-for-immunoxel-product-for-treatment-of-tb-and-aids--3644.html