UPDATE: Elan: Test Results Could Help Determine PML Risk – WSJ.com
DUBLIN (Dow Jones)–Elan Corp. PLC (ELN) Tuesday announced results of a test that could help determine whether multiple sclerosis patients will develop a rare brain disease before they decide to take Elan and joint venture partner Biogen Idec Inc.’s (BIIB) drug Tysabri.
According to research, samples from 17 patients were analyzed and shown to contain the JC Virus or be “anti-JCV antibody positive.” All 17 patients subsequently went on to contract the rare brain disease, known as PML, which means they wouldn’t have been good candidates for Tysabri.
About 50% of the population are thought to carry the JC Virus and Tysabri patients who don’t have the virus are thought to be at significantly lower risk of PML. The brain disease occurs when the virus attacks the central nervous system in people who have weakened immune systems.
“These data support our ongoing clinical studies to assess the clinical utility of this assay and our commitment to further mitigating the rare risk of PML in Tysabri-treated patients,” said Alfred Sandrock, senior vice president of neurology research and development at Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB).
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The Associated Press: FDA weighs benefits, risks of Novartis MS pill
Swiss drugmaker Novartis has asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve its drug Gilenia to treat patients with relapsed multiple sclerosis, which causes tremors and movement problems. The drug is a daily pill and would offer an alternative to older injectable drugs.
FDA reviewers said two studies of the drug “provide substantial evidence for an effect.”
However, FDA staff also noted a number of side effects with the drug, including eye disorders, heart problems and weakened lung function.
Serious side effects occurred in at least 8.5 percent of patients taking Novartis’ drug, compared with 5.8 percent of patients taking older multiple sclerosis drugs.
FDA reviewers complained that there was little data on the long-term effects of using Gilenia.
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Talking about UK scheme for MS drugs a costly failure -experts | Reuters
“The scheme was a success for the drug companies, who sold at close to full price to the NHS,” said James Raftery, a professor of health technology assessment at Southampton University. “For the NHS, however, the scheme can be judged only a costly failure.”
Raftery said an assessment of the scheme in 2009 by its scientific advisory group, which included the drug firms, found that patients fared worse on the drugs than had been expected, suggesting the medicines were not cost effective. Yet the panel decided to continue with the project.
The risk sharing scheme was set up by the government in 2002 to make disease-modifying multiple sclerosis drugs available on the NHS after the country’s health costs watchdog, the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), ruled that they were not cost effective.
Under the terms of the scheme, the government agreed to pay for the drugs on the NHS while research was carried out to assess their long-term cost effectiveness. The agreement was that the NHS would then gradually stop paying for the drugs if patients did not appear to be benefiting.
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Talking about Yoga a good activity for MS patients – chicagotribune.com
Yoga guru Baron Baptiste says that when he was approached about developing a yoga program for multiple sclerosis patients, he grabbed the opportunity.
“It was kind of exciting to me to take my skills of teaching yoga and making the benefits of yoga available to people with MS, sculpting it to fit people in their condition,” Baptiste said during a demonstration of the program, called MyMS Yoga.
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Talking about Multiple Sclerosis Walking Best Ways to Improve – Disaboom
Multiple Sclerosis Walking Experts
To address this issue, a panel of nurses and physical therapists met in 2009 to discuss how to help improve the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of walking impairment in people with multiple sclerosis. Their conclusions were published in the International Journal of MS Care in its Spring 2010 issue.
The panel members, led by June Halper, director of the International Organization of Multiple Sclerosis Nurses, and Amy Perrin Ross, neuroscience coordinator at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois, noted that many patients and their care partners don’t even have a basic understanding of how multiple sclerosis progresses, relapses, and what impact it has on their walking. The panel emphasized that effective treatment of multiple sclerosis requires a multidisciplinary approach and effective communication between the patient and his or her healthcare team.
The reason people with multiple sclerosis and their care partners don’t speak to their physicians about their walking issues, says June Halper, is because rehabilitation specialists and physicians have minimal training in this area. “Even physicians,” she says, “have minimal experience or evidence upon which to base their practice on the value of walking, mobility and what to do to improve it. Education and information is vital to close that gap.”
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