As with any elite athlete, Omphroy, a 21-year-old rookie defender with Toronto FC, has had to overcome challenges to get here. But his have been on a different scale — fears he was going blind at age 17 as he tried to crack the lineup of a professional soccer team in Portugal; enduring what felt like electric shocks through his body and the loss of feeling in one foot last year.
That second episode sent him from chiropractors to doctors to specialists. Their conclusion had an impact that goes well beyond the playing field.
Omphroy has multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and central nervous system and can have debilitating symptoms.
“I was shocked,” Omphroy recalls of the diagnosis, which came from a neurologist in February of last year following an MRI. “I was like: ‘I can’t believe I have a disease that has left people in wheelchairs.’
“Just the thought of that, of me having to be in a wheelchair sometime in my life, is scary. You hear about a friend of a friend who knows somebody who has it, but you never think it’s something that’s going to happen to you.”
Far from ending his dreams of playing professional soccer, Omphroy, a native of California’s San Francisco Bay area, firmly believes his disease has, in many ways, made him better.
His diet has improved dramatically, more greens and fish, no alcohol or caffeine. Each night, he injects Copaxone, a drug used to treat his form of the disease, and ensures that he gets enough sleep to train the next day.
More about TFC’s Demitrius Omphroy not letting multiple sclerosis slow him down – thestar.com
Posted in ABCR (Avonex, Betaferon, Copaxone, Rebif), Diagnosis, Exercise, Life| Posted by Admin | Comments Off
Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, announced today that the two-year Phase III REFLEX 1 study met its primary endpoint by demonstrating that Rebif(R) (interferon beta-1a) significantly delayed conversion to multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosed according to the McDonald criteria 2 in patients with a first clinical event suggestive of the disease.
The international REFLEX study with 517 patients was conducted with the serum-free formulation of Rebif(R) 3, which was first introduced in 2007 and is now available in all European Union countries, Australia, Canada and Switzerland, as well as a number of countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. The serum-free formulation of Rebif(R) is currently not available in the United States.
The risk of conversion to MS (McDonald criteria) over two years was reduced by 51% (p<0.00001) in patients who received Rebif(R) 44 mcg three times a week compared to placebo. A risk reduction of 31% (p=0.008) compared to placebo was observed in patients who received once-weekly administration of Rebif(R) 44 mcg. The probability of conversion to MS (McDonald criteria) over two years was 86% in the placebo group, 62% in patients who received Rebif(R) 44 mcg three times a week and 76% in patients who received once-weekly administration of Rebif(R) 44 mcg.
More details on this study
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ECTRIMS (European Committee for Treatment and Research In Multiple Sclerosis) hosts the world’s largest conference devoted to basic and clinical research in MS.
This year’s meeting took place in Gothenberg from 13-16 October and featured a wide range of presentations, posters and reports of new and ongoing research.
Below are brief reviews of some of the research reported.
ECTRIMS round up | News | MS Trust – Information, education, research and support
Posted in ABCR (Avonex, Betaferon, Copaxone, Rebif), CCSVI, Research, Tysabri| Posted by Admin | Comments Off
Talking about Medical News: ECTRIMS: Glatiramer Acetate Beats Interferon for MS Fatigue – in Meeting Coverage, ECTRIMS from MedPage Today
Glatiramer acetate (GA) reduces fatigue in multiple sclerosis patients more than interferon beta-1b (IFN-1b) after 1 year of treatment, according to a new study.
IFN-1b had no impact on two clinical measures of fatigue, while GA (Copaxone) reduced the score on the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) by 20%, and the score on the Fatigue Descriptive Scale (FDS) by 34%, according to a study presented here at the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis meeting.
Based on the results, the authors, Tatiana Shmidt and a colleague at the Kozhevnikov Clinic for Neurological Diseases in Moscow, Russia, concluded in their poster, “Copaxone is recommended as a first-line imunomodulating drug for patients with severe fatigue.” The authors were unavailable for comment at press time.
Posted in ABCR (Avonex, Betaferon, Copaxone, Rebif), Research, Treatments| Posted by Admin | Comments Off
Merck Serono to Introduce RebiDose(TM), the Rebif(R) Single Use Pre-filled Pen for Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis
“We are pleased to extend our range of devices with RebiDose(TM to meet the needs of patients looking for simple and minimum injection preparation,” said Roberto Gradnik, Head of Global Business Unit Neurodegenerative Diseases at Merck Serono. “The introduction of RebiDose, alongside RebiSmart, which was launched last year, underscores our commitment to improve the treatment convenience of multiple sclerosis patients, by offering them different options to suit their individual injection needs.”
RebiDose was specifically designed to provide MS patients with a quick and simple device. This pre-filled injection device may also be ideal for patients who are traveling. RebiDose used with Rebif will be available in a monthly pack in two different doses -22 micrograms and 44 micrograms – and in a titration pack including two different doses -8.8 micrograms and 22 micrograms. RebiDose has been approved in the European Union and in Australia. It will be launched on a country-by-country basis, with first launches planned by the end of the year.
Posted in ABCR (Avonex, Betaferon, Copaxone, Rebif), Pharma, Treatments| Posted by Admin | Comments Off
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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