From merchants to scientists: the true miracle of Carvativir

Almost a year after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, which today adds up to more than one hundred million people diagnosed and two million dead, laboratories and scientists from around the world continue to focus on its study and the manufacture of the vaccine. Along with this success of biotechnology in such a short time, a silent struggle has begun among nations to obtain pre-eminence in access to the new wave of medicines that a handful of companies produce and distribute, still insufficiently.

Venezuelan government officials, inevitably lagging behind global leaders, since they lack the political or economic weight to tilt this international struggle in their favor or even to be part of it, they say to themselves while waiting for options offered by their allies: the promised ten million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, or alternative developments from Cuba and Iran. Access to vaccines from Western laboratories, such as AstraZeneca or Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), appears blocked and not necessarily as a result of the international financial sanctions imposed on the Caracas regime or the battle of colossi that is being waged for its distribution: the Non-payment of a debt left the government of Nicolás Maduro outside the mechanism for the distribution of vaccines of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), called Covax.

In the midst of this uncertainty, a week ago Maduro himself wanted to celebrate an achievement: he assured that he has the stone, or rather, the philosopher's drop that would end the coronavirus, discovered and provided by a local laboratory.

On his desk, in the television broadcast, the Chavista leader had two bottles and a thin yellow book. "Already today, having established the national and international patent, having received the country's official sanitary permit, I can present the medicine that neutralizes 100% of the coronavirus: Carvativir, better known as the miraculous goths of José Gregorio Hernández," he proclaimed for Venezuela and the world "Ten drops under the tongue, every four hours, and the miracle is done. It is a powerful antiviral, very powerful, that neutralizes the coronavirus.”

Neutralize. He finishes it. Maduro assured in that speech that the remedy for the coronavirus was created by a group of Venezuelans who applied experimental studies for nine months in seriously ill patients, including intubated patients, and that it was a massive experiment that included “the patients who were in El Poliedro de Caracas , in the Car hospital”.

After that announcement, with the potential to make him both a hero and a global laughing stock, Maduro slipped more mystery: “Creation of a brilliant mind in Venezuela. You will meet her in the future. For now, we are protecting them, the scientists and the lead scientist, protecting him in his creativity.”

Everything like in pharmacy

The "miraculous drops" were created by the Pharmacological Laboratory of Venezuela (Labfarven). Despite its name, it is not a business that has evolved from a local pharmacy, a maquiladora of pharmaceutical formulas or a medicine importer. According to what is established in the Integrated National Service of Customs and Tax Administration (Seniat), Labfarven was previously a sale of spare parts, parts and vehicle accessories called Miami Customs & Accessories.

To make matters worse, the team that presents itself as responsible for the research that led to the discovery is not a paragon of scientific credentials either.

Of the main authors, one, Raúl Antonio Ojeda Rondón, comes from being president of the National Commission of Intellectuals and Diplomats of the recently closed National Constituent Assembly -created by Chavismo in 2017, more than to write a Constitution, as a double official of the original parliament, then controlled by the opposition - and of working in the state oil company PDVSA; the other, Jheam Frank Campos Alvarado, is an official who has worked with and for the State. Both are listed as shareholders and directors of Labfarven and have roots in Anzoátegui state, on the northeastern coast of Venezuela.

Although Maduro assured that, by ceasing to mention them in public, he sought to protect both from a threat that only he seems to know about, Raúl Ojeda Rondón -the main signatory of the investigation that, bound like a yellow book, the president exhibited during his speech- he never made such an effort to keep a low profile. On the contrary: his name appears as the author of the book Phase I and II clinical study: antiviral and immunomodulatory activity of the recombinant Isothymol compound against the SARS-CoV-2 agent in Covid-19 patients, which has been on sale since last September in Amazon for five dollars. The volume looks similar to the one Maduro raised.

On the back cover, along with his photo, Ojeda Rondón included a brief autobiographical profile. From his resume it says that he is a Chemical Engineer and "specialist in Strategic and Tactical Planning". He also says that he has "a master's degree in Reservoir Characterization and Exploitation." He adds being a writer, poet and altruist. Although he is neither a doctor nor a pharmacist, he is part of the research and development team of the Pharmacological Laboratory of Venezuela (Labfarven).

In the internal pages Ojeda Rondón adds another piece of information. He is credited with Campos Alvarado as members of a supposed Research and Development Department of the J & R Drugstore. There are almost no traces of this company on the web. For this report, it was not possible to specify his origin, beyond being Venezuelan, because that is what they indicate. At least it is observed that the name of the drugstore coincides with the initials of the first names of both, Jheam and Raúl.

Hole in La Carraca

On the Internet you can get a couple of reports on Carvativir in .pdf format under the signature of the duo of authors and produced by both companies, the J&R Drugstore and Labfarven. Together, added to some annexes and the technical sheet of the drops, these reports make up the gut of the book that can be obtained, only in physical, by Amazon. These are not publications contained in any scientific journal or database, but rather two documents that were posted on the Scribd platform, a kind of digital library where anyone can host papers.

Both are published since September 2020, the same date of publication of the book on Amazon. One of them deals with phases I and II of clinical trials in patients and another is, in the words of the scientific community, a "cut and paste" of information on Isothymol, the active principle of Carvativir, a simple molecule that is It derives from a natural substance present in thyme oil, but which can be made in a laboratory.

And again: Ojeda Rondón is not known for being reserved. Already in September 2017, he appeared on the main television channel of the State with the complaint of being, according to his words, the first Venezuelan civilian sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) of the US Department of the Treasury, for his links with high-ranking political officials of the government of Nicolás Maduro.

With some boastfulness, he claimed that by then he had sold, also through Amazon, 320,000 copies of his book The Hidden Face of World Geopolitics, which was sold "in 82 countries" and was translated "in five languages". But punitive measures from Washington, he complained, prevented him from collecting royalties from him for this platform, equivalent, according to his calculations, to six dollars per copy.

On the television screen he read a letter from Amazon informing him that the funds remained frozen. "If you multiply 320,000 by six", finished Ojeda Rondón his intervention, "you will realize the amount that they froze, that in the end they did not freeze it but they stole it, because they have stolen from me. That is a robbery that they are doing for the legal negotiations that I had with them [Sic]”, said Ojeda, in his role as writer and geostrategist that preceded his current role as scientific researcher.

Despite this claim, the background was not an obstacle for Ojeda Rondón to offer his little yellow book again by Amazon in 2020.

A couple of years ago, information emerged on networks and digital media that Ojeda Rondón was arrested for alleged acts of corruption while serving as vice president of the Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation (CVP), a PDVSA subsidiary created by Chavismo to control the hiring of the state oil company.

While no government spokesman spoke publicly on this issue, it was Ojeda Rondón himself who, on that occasion, was in charge of leaving a record of his vicissitudes in captivity. He did it in four books with lyrical pretensions in which he reflects how he felt "in a cell on Roca Tarpeya". La Roca Tarpeya is the site in the southwest of Caracas where El Helicoide is located, an unfinished modernist shopping center from the 1950s that, after several recyclings, today serves as the headquarters of the Chavismo political police, the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin ). Also again, Ojeda Rondón's brochures have been on sale on Amazon since December 16, 2018, the year of his arrest.

In one of his books, he recounts that on February 16, 2018, they arrested him because "some beasts thirsty for hate let the demons of envy loose." From that experience came this series of four little books whose themes revolve around justice and prison.

In a sentence from his second book, no image is spared: "Peaceable freedom trembles dying in the age of tyranny that is fertilized in sickly power," he wrote. But, contrary to the exuberance of the code language he uses there, nowhere does he reveal what he was accused of or what tyrants he refers to.

In addition to his notes on world geopolitics, which he assures have reached the category of bestseller, in other works he also wrote about the so-called V generation war, where, among other things, he refers to the manipulation of information and psychological warfare, something that, paradoxically, , seems to be what is happening with the reports on Carvativir.

The revolution is a company

Raúl Antonio Ojeda Rondón shares the copyright, both in the published reports and in the yellow book for sale on Amazon, with Jheam Frank Campos Alvarado, his partner at Labfarven. But neither the photo nor the curriculum of this one are printed, like those of Ojeda.

Campos Alvarado is a 42-year-old man who identifies himself on a social network as "businessman, fighter and faithful follower of our eternal COMMANDER", thus, in capital letters. He has been both a public employee and a government contractor in areas that have nothing to do with health, medicine, or the scientific method.

In the National Procurement System, Campos Alvarado appears linked to three companies based in Anzoátegui, where the Labfarven offices are also located. In fact, the address of the latter is also that of two of his other companies: Calle 11, Colinas de Neverí, in Barcelona, ​​the state capital.

One of them is Constructora Eyeife, which, although it had a first headquarters in Carrizal, Miranda state, was transferred to Barcelona. His area of ​​specialization: manufacture and elaboration of fiber cement sheets, execution of remodeling works and construction of all types of homes, stores, shopping centers, sidewalks, courts and everything related to the industry. Campos Alvarado is the president of the company, which today is still authorized to contract with the State, according to the records.

The same Calle 11 de Colinas de Neverí was registered as the headquarters of Astialba (Shipyards and Reconstructions of Alba), another of the companies linked to this businessman, created in 2017 to offer services of sanitation, recovery, bioremediation, equipment reconstruction, machinery and other lacustrine, maritime, vehicular and aerial waste. Although he began his registration with the National Registry of Contractors, the process was not completed. But Campos Alvarado was identified there as one of its main directors.

It would be with Conrapaca Services and Maintenance, in charge of executing civil, mechanical, electrical, electromechanical, instrumentation, oil, chemical, and agricultural works, among others, that Campos would obtain dozens of contracts with PDVSA and several of its subsidiaries, including the CVP where Ojeda Rondón was as a senior executive. Campos Alvarado came to be on the Conrapaca board at least until 2013.

From that same year, photographs of Campos Alvarado can be found on social networks. In them he is seen participating in the closing act of the electoral campaign that, in April, would consecrate Nicolás Maduro as successor to Hugo Chávez in the presidency of the Republic. Campos Alvarado is identified there as one of the executives (financial director, specifically) of the Bancasa Foundation, an entity that developed housing projects together with the government's Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela.

But before all this and patenting the "miracle drops", he ventured into another type of business. He was the owner of a nightclub on the tourist island of Margarita, which was called Ibiza. The venue closed its doors on September 2, 2009 after a scandal over the use of drugs on the premises. Ten people were arrested, while Campos Alvarado and his partner were charged with illicit trafficking in narcotic and psychotropic substances in the form of concealment as immediate cooperators, as can be read in a February 2010 court file from the Criminal Court of Control of the Nueva Esparta state.

That bad time in business did not limit him from continuing to grow with Constructora Eyeife and opening up a field in Anzoátegui, where, judging by information from the National Registry of Contractors, he has done better.

Scientific 'clipping'

Since the pompous presidential presentation of Carvativir eight days ago, the official version persists in granting scientific rigor to some reports that lack it, both in form and substance. They are just a patchwork quilt, coming from various sources.

One of the two documents published on the Internet refers to the "antiviral efficacy and mechanism of action of the compound Isothymol recombined under the trademark called Carvativir, against the SARS-CoV-2 agent that causes the disease Covid 19", written under the authorship from Labfarven.

There are 69 pages that go through, first, the permits that have been granted by both the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA, also for its acronym in English). English) to Isothymol or Timol, permits that were not linked to Covid-19. They then continue with a review of the molecular structures of the virus, mechanisms of action, effects, graphs and data tables, and end with the antiviral, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, to name a few, of this molecule. None of this prevents the document from raising doubts in the Venezuelan scientific community, which avoids giving it the category of a scientific article, since it is not published in any recognized or peer-reviewed journal.

The Association of researchers of the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (Asoin-Ivic) and the Venezuelan Academy of Medicine warned in two statements that they are unaware of the existence of studies related to Carvativir, and recalled the importance of publishing this type of research, including evidence rigorous clinical tests necessary to demonstrate the effectiveness, in this case, of Isotimol on Covid-19. The protocol of these tests comprises up to four phases, of which, in the case of Carvativir, only the first two are known, and these are only informally due to loose documents on the Internet and the Amazon yellow book.

From this dubious source, it appears that phases I and II were carried out between May 20 and June 20, 2020 in a hundred patients from five hospitals, but without specifying which ones. It can only be inferred that one of them is Domingo Luciani from Social Security in El Llanito, a sector in eastern Caracas: one of the listed collaborators appears as a representative of that care center. Maduro, on the day of the announcement, spoke of El Poliedro de Caracas -a venue in the Venezuelan capital for massive shows that was set up as a reception center for cases- and the nearby Hospital de Coche, but nothing more is known.

The document also does not mention which hospital services or departments studied the cases. Instead, it includes a reference that arouses suspicion: another of the collaborators is Yanuacelis Cruz, an anatomopathologist at the National Service of Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Senamecf) of the Bello Monte Morgue, in Caracas. The paper, however, does not explicitly say that cadavers were worked on or that any of the patients died during the study.

Another question arises from the description of the subjects who would have participated in the trial: 50 patients were hospitalized receiving complementary oxygen, ten were intubated, receiving mechanical ventilation, and 40 were asymptomatic. “How could they give sublingual drops to intubated patients if they are usually sedated, cannot swallow and are treated with intravenous medications?” Asks, in the absence of details, a specialist doctor familiar with these scientific protocols, who requested to keep your name on reserve.

As it is information from little or nothing known laboratories (Labfarven and J&R Drug Store), and from a supposed clinical study whose report does not specify details about the hospitals and dependencies where it was carried out, the ethics committee that endorsed it, the doses administered daily, nor does it include -like all serious reports- the citations of the references listed at the end, the case of an unreliable investigation is completed.

A dispatch from the official Venezuelan News Agency (AVN) and an interview that Ojeda Rondón granted to the Caracas newspaper El Nacional, days after Maduro's announcement, are the only references made public so far about phases III and IV of the alleged study. . Both publications ensure that phase III had the participation of 600 people (half would have received Isotimol and the other a placebo) between August and November, who carried out studies in Turkey and even at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, in the United States. , and that everything is ready for mass production. “This is a scientific investigation, not a political one. Tests were carried out in Turkey, Iran and the United States,” Ojeda Rondón told El Nacional.

Armando.info requested formal interviews with representatives of Labfarven and the authors of the studies, but no response was obtained.

The "neutralizing" effect of Isotimol on Covid-19 remains to be seen. Days after the hopeful announcement, Maduro lowered his tone a bit and assured that Carvativir would be a complementary treatment, probably as other natural products promoted by the president in his speeches have also turned out: for example, Prevengho Vir, some homeopathic drops from Cuba, malojillo tea and ozone. The health registration granted to these “miraculous drops”, according to the state news agency, is PN (natural product) 21-0068.

Representatives of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), as on other occasions, but this time with emphasis on the recent announcement by the Venezuelan authorities, recommended days later, at a press conference on January 27, to adhere to strict methodologies, avoid bias and publish the findings of clinical studies. They clarified that they do not validate new treatments or medicines for Covid-19, but rather evaluate the evidence that is published in scientific journals.

In light of what is known so far, the true miracle of Carvativir drops would be that the team that claims responsibility for the clinical studies, and the reports on them, pass the filter of the scientific method.