Investing.com - A seaweed derived remedy that can reduce the severity of colds and flu-like symptoms in children and adults was launched in Asia on Wednesday by privately-owned Mundipharma, aiming to tap a market where high urban densities make a trip to the clinic for sneezes, coughing and upper respiratory inflammation at the top of cases seen by doctors daily.
Liew Woei Kang, a children's doctor at Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore, discussed at a press conference the high incidence of trips to clinics that rank as the top complaint by patients daily and said that frequently requests for antibiotics to treat the conditions are granted, even though the drugs won't kill the viruses that cause the symptoms.
"This is a real issue," Liew said. Ronald Eccles, a professor who runs the Common Cold Centre at the University of Cardiff in Wales, citing clinical studies, also said at the press conference that the remedy, known as carrageenan, acts like a trap for the virus to limit the spread in early stages as a natural product, thereby cutting the length of colds on a mean average of two days among adults, a factor equivalent to prescription therapies.
"Two days is exactly the same as Tamiflu and Relenza," Eccles said, referring to two therapies often used to treat severe flu symptoms.