Natural News

Tishcon Turns Tables, Gets Drug Approval

WESTBURY, N.Y.—Financial incentives are luring pharmaceutical companies to the dietary supplements industry, but supplements makers are striking back by slipping into lucrative pharmaceutical territories.

"If it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander," says Raj Chopra, president of Tishcon Corp., a supplements manufacturer based here. "I feel really good."

Tishcon makes a proprietary, hydrosoluble form of coenzyme Q-10 that the company says improves bioavailability because of its reduced molecule size. It has won FDA approval for "orphan drug" designation, granted after an FDA review of literature submitted from peer-reviewed journals including a Co-Q10 monograph published by the U.S. Pharmacopoeia. The designation is followed by clinical trials. If they prove positive, FDA will grant exclusive marketing rights to Tishcon.

Orphan drugs generally treat rare diseases. If the clinical trials are successful, Tishcon's Co-Q10 can be prescribed for mitochondrial cytopathies—pathological changes in cell mitochondria, usually diagnosed as Melas, Merff or Kearns-Sayre syndromes.