CUPRASE NOT ADMITTED TO N. N. R.

Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

The Council has authorized publication of the following report on Cuprase, sold by the Anglo-French Drug Co., Ltd. The Council’s criticisms of the advertising claims were sent to the firm, December, 1918. The firm made no reply and essentially the same claims are contained in recent advertisements.

W. A. Puckner, Secretary.

“Cuprase” is now being advertised and sold in the United States by the Anglo-French Drug Co., Ltd., the firm which also markets it in England. It is said to be “prepared in the Laboratories of F. Ducatte, 8 Place de la Medeleine, Paris.” According to an advertising circular entitled “The Medical Treatment of Cancer” “Cuprase” is “chemical colloidal copper”; in another place it is “a colloidal copper hydroxid,” which is said to be obtained chemically by the reduction of salts of copper in the presence of albumosic acid.

A box (price $8.50 less 10 per cent. discount) of “Cuprase-Doctor Gaube du Gers” was purchased recently from the Anglo-French Drug Co., Ltd. It contained eight ampules each containing approximately 6 c.c. of a brownish fluorescent liquid. No information of composition was given on the box, except the line: “Chaque ampoule contient: 0 gr. .00121 de Cuivre pur” (Each ampule contains 0.00121 gr. of pure copper). The A. M. A. Chemical Laboratory reports that the preparation does contain a small amount of copper, with some protein material and about 1 per cent. sodium chlorid.

The therapeutic claims in the advertising circular are those commonly made for cancer “cures” and are about equally convincing. The publication of such statements and quotations as the following, which appear in a pamphlet “The Medical Treatment in Cancer,” cannot be too strongly condemned in a medicament that at best has only an experimental status:

“A special preparation, Cuprase, has been introduced into therapeutics which has been remarkably successful. In the history of the therapeutics of cancer, nothing has been found which can compare with the effects produced by means of Cuprase. Clinical facts carry greater weight than theoretical deductions. It follows, from the clinical observations which I have collected, that in the large majority of cases Cuprase effects the diminution or disappearance of the pains, an improvement in the general condition, a diminution or arrest of the neoplasms, and finally in certain cases, a cure has been effected. It should be remarked that all or nearly all the observations refer to inoperable cases in which the prognosis was unfavorable at an early date. It is needless to emphasize the practical importance of a preparation capable of yielding such results, even relative, in the worst stages of a disease which has always been regarded as absolutely resisting the action of all internal remedies.”

“To sum up, Cuprase has given positive results in about 94 per cent. of the cases in which it has been employed for a sufficiently long period, and some brilliant results in about 20 per cent. of these cases. Therefore, it may be affirmed, that among the internal remedies for cancer, Cuprase is the one which has produced the most successful results, and can, under certain circumstances, compete with surgical methods, even, so far as the rapidity of their results are concerned.”

“It is indicated:

(a) apart from all operation, and as a specific and curative remedy;

(b) before an operation, in order to give tone to the patient, mobilise the tumor, destroy its toxins;

Essentially the same statements are made in the more recent advertisements (f. i. Urological and Cutaneous Review, Feb., 1919). Opposed to these loose statements are the results of Richard Weil (The Journal A. M. A., 1913, Sept. 27, p. 1034; ibid, 1915, April 17, p. 1283). Weil avoided pitfalls of subjective impressions and used as the essential criterion of efficiency “the demonstrable reduction in size of a tumor, of a kind not to be attributed to the natural processes of evolution of that tumor or of its associated lesions” (l. c. 1915, p. 1289).

The available evidence for Cuprase is far from meeting this criterion. That published by the manufacturers and agents presents only vague generalities, and no definite data. The evidence gathered by Weil himself permits an estimate of the value of Cuprase and it is entirely unfavorable. He states (l.c. 1915, p. 1288):

“Colloidal copper has been used in recent time for the same purpose by Gaube du Gers and by others. I have recently examined the effects of colloidal copper on malignant tumors in man, and have been unable to find that it has any therapeutic value. Furthermore, a study of the distribution of the copper in tumors obtained at operation or by necropsy from individuals so treated failed to show that the copper had been deposited therein.”

In view of the extravagant and cruelly misleading therapeutic claims, and the indefinite statements of composition, the Council voted Cuprase ineligible to N. N. R., and authorized the publication of this report.—(From The Journal A. M. A., April 12, 1919.)