FILUDINE

Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry

Filudine is said to be prepared by J. L. Chatelain, Paris, and is sold in this country by Geo. J. Wallau, Inc., New York. It is offered as a remedy for “biliary insufficiency,” “hepatic insufficiency,” “intestinal dyspepsia,” “all affections of the liver (diabetes, cirrhosis, cancer, etc.),” “malaria,” “obesity” and “tuberculosis.”

No quantitative information is furnished as to the composition of the preparation and there are noteworthy discrepancies in the various statements regarding the ingredients. In one number of “Treatment,” a self-styled “Review” of medical literature (actually devoted to advertising the preparations sold by Wallau), we are told that

“This product [Filudine] is a more concentrated and potent extract of the liver, with which is combined an extract of the spleen. The liver and the spleen are so intimately interdependent, that the addition of a splenary extract to the liver extract is a signal improvement from which a synergistic action results. Thiarféine is also added, as it helps somewhat to combat the anaemia from which all diabetics suffer more or less.”

Thiarféine is said to be

“Thiomethylarsinate of Caffein, a new salt discovered by M. Chatelain.”

Another circular, which gives an imposing formula for “thiarféine” or “thio­methyl­arsinate of caffein,” states that

“Sulphurated methylarsinate is an arsenical preparation devoid of all toxicity on account of the intimate joining of its composing parts.”

And that

“Filudine can never be contraindicated.”

A statement of composition in a later number of “Treatment,” however, says that biliary extracts are components, in addition to the liver and spleen extracts. Moreover, thiarféine, the “new salt discovered by M. Chatelain,” is no longer “thio­methyl­arsinate,” but “thio­cinnamate of caffein”; and a new formula is furnished for it.

We are told that

“Methyl-arsinate cannot be used in cases where fever is present....”

“M. Chatelain at first studied the action of thio­methyl­arsinate; clinical and physiological experimentation led him, however, to adopt thio­cinnamate of caffein, of greater activity and with no contraindications.”

Nevertheless the same absence of contraindications was urged in favor of Filudine when it was said to contain the now discarded thio­methyl­arsinate of caffein.

The following are some of the unwarranted and even absurd claims:

“Filudine restores the liver’s functions. It is to the liver what digitalis is to the heart; it overcomes the insufficiency and stimulates the debilitated organ.”

In malaria “it is the only true specific when associated with quinine.”

“Filudine is ... the ideal medication for tuberculosis, conforming as it does with the most recent researches in the therapeusis of this affection.”

“We will not go as far as to say that Opotherapy completely restores unhealthy livers, for although the lesions of the hepatic parenchyma may be obliterated by regeneration, the lesions of the connective tissues are permanent, and may be observed at the postmortem examination. The new cells, however, do not present the same unhealthy conditions as those of the former diseased gland which they have replaced, and the liver can therefore function normally, so that the patient lives on; and he is satisfied with that.”

“Therefore, while regenerating the liver with Filudine, we cleanse it and combat its congested state with Urodonal. We cause it to produce urea from the excess of uric acid which it contains.”

“By the judicious and harmonious combination of the beneficial effects of Filudine and Urodonal, physicians not only possess the means of treating by rational methods Cirrhosis of the Liver in its various forms (which is one of the most terrible diseases which can afflict anyone) but what is still better, they can cure it.”

“The liver of a person suffering from obesity being incapable of fulfilling its functions in regard to the fatty tissues, the rational and up-to-date method of treatment is therefore to restore to the system, in the form of Filudine, the liver extracts which are lacking.”

Filudine is a mixture of semisecret composition. The therapeutic claims are manifestly unwarranted. The name is not indicative of the composition, whatever that may be, and no rational excuse is offered for the combination of liver and spleen extracts (with or without bile extracts) with “thio­methyl­arsinate” or “thiocinnamate” of caffein.

The Council therefore held Filudine ineligible for New and Non­official Remedies.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Sept. 18, 1915.)