TURNING TRAGEDY INTO A MIRACLE: Unsweetened zinc gluconate lozenges containing 23 mg of zinc were serendipitously discovered in 1979 by my 3 year old daughter being treated for acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) as an effective method to cure her common colds -- even though she was on powerful chemotherapy and was highly immunosupressed.

Following the initial discovery, clinical trials were conducted and use of lozenges containing zinc gluconate or other zinc compounds was patented in a series of patents starting in 1985 with the "Cure for Common Cold" patent being issued in 1995.

Much newspaper, magazine, radio, and television publicity ensued the initial Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotheraphy report in 1984, and numerous manufacturers placed on the market "improved" zinc lozenges that were sweetened. Some of those improved and sweetened formulations were submitted to clinical trials by reputable pharmaceutical companies, while others simply placed them on the market.

They found that zinc gluconate forms very bitter complexes with all sweet carbohydrates (except fructose) upon aging for a few days to a few months, depending on the exact formulation, probably because of the presence of zinc gluconate-hydroxide at physiologic pH. Manufacturers and researchers alike in desperation to solve the taste problem added metal chelators, reduced dosage or used other nonionizable zinc compounds, resulting in a loss of Zn²⁺ ions and efficacy, with at least two formulations actually making colds worse in clinical trials; reports of which temporarily discredited this major medical discovery.

Fructose, the only sweet tablet base that does not result in zinc gluconate bitterness upon aging, was used as the tablet base in the successful and confirming zinc gluconate lozenges tested by the British Medical Research Council Common Cold Unit in 1987 without complaint of bitterness.

Sometime before 1990, I discovered that zinc acetate could be made into compressed tablets or hard candy lozenges that were flavor-stable and pleasant tasting. Research was conducted until ZIA 100 zinc acetate lozenges were proven to be readily mass produced on modern rotary tablet presses and candy making machinery.

Today's ZIA 100 zinc acetate lozenges work much better against colds, and totally without those side effects associated with zinc gluconate tablets that we tested as lozenges in 1984.

The future of zinc acetate lozenges as the cure for the common cold, the holy grail of medicine, remains to be written. Aiding in writing the future will be formal clinical trials of ZIA 100 and separately ZIA 200 zinc acetate lozenges against common colds leading to OTC status.