Armenicum

Armenicum is a drug invented in Armenia that its developers claim is an effective treatment for HIV infection and a number of associated diseases. No rigorously monitored clinical trials of Armenicum have been published, and most HIV experts outside of Armenia do not endorse its use.

The main ingredient of Armenicum is iodine, a general antiseptic. According to the manufacturers it also contains dextrin, polyvinyl alcohol, sodium, potassium and lithium cations and chloride anions. It is described as a "blue-violet liquid with specific odor, packed in orange glass bottles per 20ml and corked tightly by a rubber plug clutched by aluminum caps."

Each vial (20ml) contains: Iodine 0.16g; Potassium iodide 0.24g; Lithium chloride 0.004g; Polyvinyl alcohol 0.06g; Dextrin 2.0g; Sodium chloride 0.18g; Water for injection up to 20.0 ml.

According to its makers, Armenicum is registered in Armenia in accordance with the "Guidelines of Accelerated Approval", and is protected by the patent N 949 of the Republic of Armenia, issued on 10th June 2001.

The drug is intended for treatment of HIV-infected adults in symptomatic and AIDS stages. A Phase II trial was conducted on 240 patients in November 1998. According to its makers, this trial concluded that:


 * 1) Armenicum significantly improves quality of life in the following dimensions: overall health, physical function, role function, social function, cognitive function, pain, mental health, energy/fatigue, health distress, quality of life, health transition.
 * 2) It decreases HIV-1 viral load.
 * 3) It improves the immune status, evaluated by changes in T4-lymphocytes count and integral surrogate markers.
 * 4) It leads to regression of some dermatological diseases, such as acne vulgaris, folliculitis, ostiofolliculitis, piodermitis, warts, condilomatosis, pityriasis versicolor, seborrheic and allergic dermatitis, neurodermitis, psoriasis, parapsoriasis, eczema, recurrent herpetic infection.
 * 5) It improves memory, including professional speech, its sensible sequence, movement coordination, including the gait, as well as decreases severity of radicular syndrome and sleep disorders in patients with encephalopathy.

Doubts about efficacy
In 1999, the BBC made an award-winning radio programme about Armenicum, which included interviews with scientists involved in administering the drug, patients and creator Alexander Ilyen. This investigation raised serious doubts about the drug's efficacy and concluded that it might do more harm than good.

At the time of the BBC report, no results from rigorously monitored clinical trials of Armenicum had been published and leading HIV experts were highly skeptical about the drug.

Dr Manfred Dietrich of the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg conducted his own trial of Armenicum and concluded, Since we saw high numbers of virus in the blood, it did not have any anti retroviral effect. We know that stimulated lymphocytes may be prone to be infected by virus much easier than other, let's say more resting lymphocytes. I would not recommend at all to take such a drug.

An American who tried Armenicum stated that, The treatment hasn’t done anything and it’s actually... we’re in a worse state than we were before we went. What we’re getting is the T-cell count is so low it’s in the danger level of 42. That means that you’re susceptible to opportunistic infections, which one wasn’t before. Emotionally it’s a very hard thing to deal with. It was sort of the last resort.

As of November 2006, there have still been no rigorous efficacy studies of Armenicum published in major scientific journals (PubMed search, 2006-11-25). The drug has been licensed in Russia, Congo and Liberia but not in the USA or Europe. Currently, the internationally recommended treatment for HIV infection involves a combination of antiretroviral drugs.