Category Archives: MS Treatment

ROCKLAND, Mass. and NEW YORK, May 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- EMD Serono, Inc., a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer Inc. announced today that the MS LifeLines call center earned re-certification for customer service excellence in providing support services to the multiple sclerosis (MS) community through the prestigious J.D. Power and Associates Call Center Certification ProgramSM. This is the second consecutive year J.D. Power and Associates has recognized MS LifeLines with this certification after a thorough audit of customer satisfaction practices over several months in 2012. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130528/SF20043LOGO) (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121220/SF32295LOGO-b) (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121220/SF32295LOGO-a) For more than a decade, MS Lifelines has been committed to connecting with the MS community, listening to its needs and delivering individualized support to people living with MS, their families and their caregivers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "MS LifeLines has shown a commitment to providing outstanding customer service, and are to be congratulated for earning their second consecutive certification," said Mark Miller, Senior Director, J.D. Power and Associates. "Our research indicated that in particular, customers were very pleased with the level of courtesy and concern provided by MS LifeLines representatives, which is so critical when helping people cope with health-related issues." … Continue reading →

A cancer sufferer has been banned from hugging her three children after she became radioactive during treatment. Doctors have told UK mother-of-three Emma Day she could cause lasting damage by making bodily contact with anyone during three weeks of her treatment for thyroid cancer. Britain's Daily Mail reports the 27-year-old was placed in isolation in hospital, with staff banned from going within three metres of her for five days. Since being allowed home, Ms Day must avoid contact with her six-year-old daughter and one-year-old twins. She said the ban on bodily contact was tough as her youngest children were too young to understand. "I breast-fed my twins for about five months after they were born, and Im not used to being away from them. Its very hard. Im missing them so much," she told the Daily Mail. "I thought it was hard in hospital, but it is so much harder now because I can see them but I know I cannot touch them or cuddle them or go near them." Ms Day's treatment involves a form of internal radiotherapy which involves iodine 131. The element is taken as a drink or capsule which circulates the body in the bloodstream. Cancer … Continue reading →

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/p32xmw/ocrelizumab) has announced the addition of the "Ocrelizumab (Multiple Sclerosis) - Forecast and Market Analysis to 2022" report to their offering. Ocrelizumab (Multiple Sclerosis) - Forecast and Market Analysis to 2022. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory neurological disorder characterized pathologically by demyelination, axonal transection and neurodegeneration within the central nervous system. With curative therapy still elusive, current disease management is dependent on life-long pharmacotherapy with disease-modifying therapies (DMT). The dominance of first-line injectable DMTs, including the interferon beta (IFN) agents: Bayer's Betaseron/Betaferon (IFN-1b), Biogen's Avonex (IFN-1a) and Merck's Rebif (IFN-1a), and Teva's Copaxone (glatiramer acetate), has been a salient feature of the MS therapeutics market. However, the competitive landscape is undergoing significant change with the emergence of oral therapies, several pipeline products with notable efficacies, and looming generics/biosimilars following the patent expiries of key branded products during the forecast period. In addition, the entry of new companies such as Sanofi/Genzyme and F. Hoffmann-La-Roche/Genentech will challenge the position of the established players in the MS marketplace. Roche's/Genentech's and Biogen Idec's ocrelizumab (RG1594) is a recombinant humanized CD20 mAb that is currently being investigated in Phase III trials for the treatment of RRMS and PPMS. … Continue reading →

Independent MLA and retired surgeon Jim Parrott is calling on the provincial government to stop spending taxpayers' money on a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis. The Alward government set up a fund in 2010 to match up to $2,500 in community donations for patients who want to travel outside of New Brunswick to get the so-called liberation therapy. But Parrott says the treatment, which involves opening up narrow neck veins, has since been proven "ineffective" and the fund, which has a budget of $75,000 this year, should now be rescinded. "It should have been evaluated with much more intensity, the value of the procedure," he said. A recent University of Buffalo study found liberation therapy did not improve symptoms and actually made a few patients worse. Finance Minister Blaine Higgs said earlier this month the fund, which falls under his department, was a campaign promise, but he planned to seek advice from doctors on the issue. Health Minister Ted Flemming agrees it may be time to reconsider the fund. "Perhaps three-and-a-half years ago there was some idea that yeah, it did work. Perhaps three-and-a-half years later, if there's now no clinical evidence that it does work, then you change," Flemming … Continue reading →

NEW YORK, May 24, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Multiple sclerosis is a life altering disease that affects each person in a unique and different way. More than 2.1 million people worldwide live with MS, which is why demonstrating the power and importance of the global MS movement is critical on World MS Day -- May 29. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090302/DC77093LOGO) World MS Day is worldwide collaborative awareness campaign taking place in more than 40 countries. The campaign builds understanding of multiple sclerosis, an often disabling disease of the central nervous system which interrupts the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and the body. MS is the most common neurological disease affecting young adults.Its hallmark is unpredictability and its symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. Central to the campaign are multi-media awareness efforts stretching around the globe that illustrate what living with MS means, including the opportunity for people affected by MS , especially young adults who are benefitting from current breakthrough treatments, to share the mottos that help guide their daily lives. For news and pictures of World MS Day activities, see http://www.worldmsday.org. Leveraging the messaging of the global World MS Day campaign, the National … Continue reading →

Kari Antin, a 40-year-old financial analyst in Minneapolis, knows shes taking a life-or-death risk with every monthly infusion of Biogen (BIIB) Idec Inc.s Tysabri. She is among the 55 percent of multiple sclerosis patients who harbor a potentially lethal virus that can be reactivated by the drug, allowing it to creep from the kidneys to the brain, where it destroys cells that protect the nerves. The risk soars after two years of treatment. Still, Antin insists on sticking with the drug she credits with restoring her health. Its a dilemma faced by almost 60,000 multiple sclerosis patients worldwide who continued on Tysabri beyond the recommended two years. Its also new territory for Biogen, as the number of patients pushing the time limit increases, and a concern for prescribing doctors who increasingly find patients resolute about staying on the potent medicine that reduces the risk of relapse by 68 percent. I dread the thought of being in a wheelchair, said Antin, who has had only one relapse on Tysabri and just returned from sailing a 50-foot catamaran with a group of friends in the British Virgin Islands. If the alternative is that I die, I would rather that than lose the … Continue reading →

By Amy Saunders The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday May 21, 2013 6:00 AM Lauri L. Wolf of Upper Arlington gathers her thoughts on a computer that responds to voice commands. To move the cursor across her computer screen, Lauri L. Wolf leans back on the headrest of her motorized wheelchair and turns her head left or right. Wake up, she says through a headset, launching the voice-recognition program to start speaking what she can no longer type. As many as eight hours a day for the past two years, Wolf dictated her thoughts until they filled the 151 pages titled The BS of My MS a memoir she wrote without the use of her hands. The 52-year-old Upper Arlington resident suffers a severe form of multiple sclerosis that has left her a quadriplegic, a prisoner in her own body. Throughout her 18 years with the disease, she hasnt found any books that address topics more personal than scientific especially about her primary-progressive MS, which affects 15 percent of MS patients. She decided to write one herself. As a pharmacist, who maintains her license by taking continuing-education courses, Wolf felt a sense of obligation to share her knowledge of the neurological disease. … Continue reading →

By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff Biogen Idec Inc., which cemented its place as the dominant multiple sclerosis drug maker in March when it won US approval to sell an MS pill, said Tuesday it has applied to the Food and Drug Administration to market a third injectable MS drug. The drug, called Plegridy, is a new version of the Weston biotechnology companys first -- and hugely successful -- MS treatment, Avonex. While both drugs have the same active ingredient, interferon beta, Biogen Idec has attached a polymer called polyethylene glycol, or peg, to Plegridy that increases the exposure of the drug, allowing patients to take doses less frequently. And unlike Avonex and other MS drugs received through intramuscular injections, Plegridy would be administered subcutaneously, or under the skin, which is less painful. We see this as part of our commitment to MS patients, said Douglas E. Williams, Biogen Idecs executive vice president of research and development. Its a convenient version of a drug thats been on the market for many years and has a track record of safety and efficacy. Williams said Plegridy met its goals of reducing the diseases effects -- including relapses and worsening disabilities -- in a … Continue reading →

XenoPort Inc. (XNPT), the maker of the drug Horizant for Restless Legs Syndrome, sank the most in almost three years after an experimental medicine failed to meet goals of a late-stage clinical trial. XenoPort dropped 13 percent to $5.87 at 10:57 a.m. New York time after touching $5.03 for the biggest intraday decline since July 2010. The shares of the Santa Clara, California-based company had fallen 13 percent this year through May 17. XenoPort is stopping development of arbaclofen placarbil, an experimental treatment for spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients, after the therapy didnt help more than placebo, the company said in a statement today. Brian Abrahams, an analyst with Wells Fargo (WFC), had estimated sales of $77 million by 2017 for the drug. This is disappointing, given promising phase 2 data, Abrahams wrote in a research note today. The failure does remove a potential floor in valuation. To contact the reporter on this story: Meg Tirrell in New York at mtirrell@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net Go here to read the rest: XenoPort Sinks as Spasticity Drug For MS Fails in Trial … Continue reading →

Shares of XenoPort Inc. sank Monday after the drug developer said a potential treatment for multiple sclerosis patients failed in late-stage clinical testing, and it will stop developing the drug. The Santa Clara, Calif., company said the treatment, labeled arbaclofen placarbil, failed to show a statistically significant improvement for patients taking it compared to a fake drug. XenoPort was testing the drug to treat patients with spasticity due to multiple sclerosis. The study involved 228 patients at 30 U.S. sites. Spasticity is a condition connected to some neurological disorders and injury to the spinal cord. It can cause decreased range of motion, weakness, and coordination problems. Multiple sclerosis is a disease in which the immune system attacks healthy nerves. It can cause pain, numbness, slurred speech, impaired vision, muscle weakness, and neurological problems. XenoPort shares fell more than 11 percent, or 78 cents, to $5.97 in late-morning trading Monday, while broader trading indexes climbed slightly. That pushed the stock price down more than 23 percent so far this year. Originally posted here: XenoPort MS treatment fails in late-stage testing … Continue reading →