LGBTQ Nation reported on Wednesday that a new medication “has shown amazing promise in its first clinical trial” after Israeli biotech company Zion Medical released a press statement stating that new trials of Gammora showed that the drug may possibly be used as an HIV cure.

“These first clinical results were beyond our expectations and promise hope in finding a cure for a disease that’s been discovered over 35 years,” says Dr Esmira Naftali, the head of development for the Israeli biotech company Zion Medical.

“Given the limited nature of this study, we are excited to prove the efficiency of our drug in Phase 2b with a greater number of participants over a longer period of time,” she added.

The claims have since been debunked by scientists, warning that reports of an HIV cure are most likely fake news.

Dr Francois Venter, Deputy Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, said, “The HIV world has seen quackery in different forms for decades – sadly this smacks of more of it.”

He also noted that the press release by Zion Medical should be read with “deep scepticism” and described the claims as “over-the-top.”

“I looked at the press report and the unsophisticated company website, and even if you believe their claims, they are many years away from testing them,” he added.

After conducting the trial of the drug, where nine HIV infected patients in Uganda were given different doses of Gammora for 4-5 weeks, the company found that most of those in the trial showed up to a 90% reduction in their viral load in the first four weeks.

Viral load is the amount of HIV in your blood, and this kind of reduction is not new and has already been achieved with commonly available antiretroviral (ARV) medication.

Moreover, Gammora’s 99% reduction was only achieved in the part of the study where it was paired with traditional antiretroviral therapy

The trial was carried out at Dr Ronald Bata Memorial Hospital in Entebbe in Uganda according to the press release, but according to ClinicalTrial.gov, there is no such trial registered.