CHUNN

http://www.melanotan.org/

This sites talks about how their drug causes the skin to produce melanon. From all my studies you still need UVA to oxidize the melanon to turn it brown. Are they leaving that out or am I wrong?

Ezliving_Jim

Competitive Technologies, Inc. (AMEX: CTT) holds the license on Melanotan. Trading at $1.65 (52 week range $1.49 ~ $3.84.
An appetite suppressant. A female labido stimulant. It improves a man's physical erectile dysfunction and heightens male labido. And it gives you a tan!
I'm buying in early on this stock! It's going to explode!

Ezliving_Jim

NEWTOWN, Pa. & MELBOURNE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 2003--CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:CGPI) today announced
the signing of a strategic collaborative agreement with EpiTan Limited (ASX:EPT) - and Thomas Skold of Norrtalje, Sweden, to develop a topical formulation for EpiTan's lead drug candidate, Melanotan, based on the Restoraderm(TM) topical drug delivery technology.

The Restoraderm technology is exclusively licensed to CollaGenex and has been sublicensed to EpiTan. Mr. Skold, the inventor of Restoraderm, will be working directly with EpiTan on the development of the topical delivery of Melanotan.
The collaborators believe that the novel characteristics of the Restoraderm technology may improve the feasibility of developing a topical formulation for Melanotan. Previous technology was unable to achieve this objective. It is envisaged that a new formulation will enable Melanotan to be released directly into the skin to the melanin-producing cells.
Melanotan, like sunlight, stimulates the production of melanin in the skin, allowing a natural tan to develop without exposure to harmful levels of ultraviolet light. EpiTan believes that Melanotan may reduce skin damage from sun exposure and thus reduce the incidence of skin cancer.
"We are interested in developing collaborations with companies
owning novel and exciting active ingredients which can benefit from the unique characteristics of the Restoraderm technology," said Robert A. Ashley, senior vice president of CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals.
"Melanotan presents the type of topical drug delivery challenge which we believe can be addressed with Restoraderm, and we will be actively involved not only in the development of Restoraderm-based products for our own portfolio but also in attempting to solve topical delivery challenges faced by other companies."
"The successful development of a topical lotion for Melanotan based on the Restoraderm technology will offer patients and doctors the choice of an alternative user-friendly and convenient delivery system for Melanotan," said Dr. Wayne Millen, EpiTan's Managing Director. "We are very pleased to be working with CollaGenex and Mr. Skold and this collaborative agreement builds on our success in developing a single-dose, slow-release implant which was announced earlier this year." Dr. Millen added, "This work is extremely well positioned behind the excellent progress of our Phase IIb clinical trials reported recently."

About EpiTan
EpiTan Limited (ASX:EPT) is an emerging biotechnology company with a pre-eminent position on the prevention of DNA skin damage from ultra-violet (UV) radiation exposure. Based in Melbourne, Australia, EpiTan holds a unique technology platform centered on its leading drug candidate Melanotan.
The company has the exclusive worldwide rights to develop Melanotan, which, like sunlight, stimulates the production of melanin in the skin resulting in a natural tan. It allows a tan to develop without exposure to harmful levels of UV light.
Melanotan is currently in Phase IIb clinical trials at two sites - the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney and the Royal Adelaide Hospital. These trials are designed to demonstrate that Melanotan can reduce the incidence of skin damage resulting from harmful exposure to ultra-violet light.
EpiTan has now successfully developed a more user-friendly drug delivery formulation of Melanotan in the form of a slow release implant. This will be used in the remaining clinical program and the commercialized product.
EpiTan is also investigating Melanotan as a therapeutic agent for other indications such as vitiligo, albinism, psoriasis and various recognized sun allergies such as polymorphous light eruptions and solar urticaria.
Potential markets worldwide for Melanotan for dermatology purposes are estimated at US$1.5 billion. An even greater market (more than US$5 billion) exists for Melanotan as a new safe (sunless) tanning drug. EpiTan is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange
Source: http://www.bioexchange.com/news/news_page.cfm?id=17305

Neon Beach

An old topic worth revisting.............................

Anyone heard anything new?

Soakinuptherays

It seems they run this out press release out whenever they need a stock or investment boost.

engfant

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking. I've been hearing about this for the past 3 years. Let's just make up how the tanning process works. Everybody already loves taking pills so why not get into that corner of the market? Low lives.

endymion96

Really now .. nobody in here seems to know what's up with Melanotan. So why lash out on a topic you seem to know very little about? The reason is fear. I have been researching Melanotan for about 18 months now on and off in my spare time. I would like to tell everyone in this forum that Melanotan and Epitan (the company developing the commercialized product) will not be putting the tanning industry out of business, so you can rest a little easier I hope. Here's why. In order to achieve optimal tanning effectiveness, a person taking Melanotan needs the synergistic biochemical effects of UV exposure. As to why this is so, I do not have the patience to explain, but I will point everyone to a rather old research article which summarizes this fact.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=10974

As a researcher, I have experiemented directly with the synthetic peptide myself. The methods of drug delivery, at the moment, include subcutaneous injection and subcutaneous implantation. Very closely followed by skin patch and eventually rub-on lotion. In the futher future, a pill form may be developed, but I'm not sure when. The same reasons why you must inject insulin and HGH apply to Melanotan. This is not some crazy pill-like drug that will make you turn orange like so many shady products related to this industry have done in the past. This is cutting-edge science.

Also, to answer the first question posted ... yes, UV radiation causes an immune system response which eventually causes melanin to be produced in the body, but if you are one of the unlucky pale-skinned people in this world no amount of sunlight or time spent in the tanning bed will make you tan. This is beacuse melanin comes in two forms -- in laymans terms, the brown stuff and the reddish-yellow stuff. What is revolutionary about Melanotan is that it can take the reddish-yellow stuff and turn it into brown stuff. All with just a little help from UV rays.

So, in conclusion .. the tanning industry will be affected by Melanotan but the way I see it, you will trade off less frequency of use for more users. What I mean is people who take Melanotan will require far less visits to the tanning salon to achieve a very nice tan, but what you trade for this will be an increase in the number of tanners because now you will have more people who never used to be able to tan (because they were always pale) coming in to enhance their Melanotan tan.

The statement that Melanotan does not require UV stimulation to create a tan is bogus. I hope I have put this ugly rumor to rest once and for all.


_________________
[ This Message was edited by: endymion96 on 2004-09-23 02:44 ]

RandyR

Thanks endymion. Very informative.
RANDY

Neon Beach

I certainly do hope that the less frequent tanners you mention are actually replaced by those who could not achieve a decent tan w/o Melanotan. Thanks for that info.

engfant

Hey Endy. Kiss my arse with your bad attitude. Yeah we are ALL FILLED WITH FEAR. Great for you that you know something. We can all go on with our lives now. Assclown.