SUPPRESSED SCIENCE

An excerpt from

Moroxydine: The Story of a Mislaid Antiviral

The story begins in 1957 with a patent claiming that:

The compounds especially salts of N’, N’-anhydrobis-(beta-oxiethyl) biguanide, combine activity against several viruses of such different types as influenza, herpes zoster, smallpox, Newcastle disease, and canine distemper with an unusually low toxicity, resulting in a high security factor in clinical use.¹

When one considers the paucity of antiviral compounds which are currently available to physicians and the evidence which is to be detailed in this review, it quite defies belief that moroxydine has not found its way into the catalogue of substances which are available for the treatment of viral disorders.

The drug originated from the work of Melander and possibly also Nilsson at the Research Department of A/B Kabi in Stockholm and the date of moroxydine’s patent now places the substance firmly into the domain of generic medicine. Moroxydine was created in an era of scientific optimism, when the popular newspapers claimed that nuclear energy would make electricity so cheap that metering would be unnecessary and scientists, it was reported, were working on a cure for the common cold. Moroxydine was probably one of those efforts since the original research was in respect of influenza. Regardless of its efficacy in any particular application however, the drug may be unique in possessing activity against a wide range of DNA and RNA viruses. One of the earliest reports of the therapeutic use of moroxydine concerned varicella zoster virus (VZV):

The new drug moroxydine was given orally or intramuscularly to 26 cases with Herpes Zoster, tablet medication is preferred since equally good therapeutic results are obtained as on parenteral administration. After two days’ adequate treatment the pains usually disappear, the temperature normalizes and propagation ceases.²