MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: New Lemtrada Side Effect, MS Cooling Vests, and Drug Infection Risks

Acute Acalculous Cholecystitis Linked to Lemtrada Use in RRMS Patients, FDA Reports

The makers of Lemtrada have added the possibility of another serious side effect to the warning carried on the therapy’s label. The addition follows a Food and Drug Administration review that discovered a potentially serious gallbladder disease that affected eight MS patients might be linked to their Lemtrada treatments.

Acute acalculous cholecystitis (AAC) is a rare but potentially life-threatening adverse effect linked to treatment with Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration review.

The study, “Acute acalculous cholecystitis — A new safety risk for patients with MS treated with alemtuzumab,” was published in the journal Neurology.

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MS Foundation Partnering with ThermApparel to Provide Cooling Vests to Patients

Summer’s coming in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means heat. What better time for a program to help MS patients who need to beat the heat but can’t afford to buy a cooling garment?

The MS Focus: Multiple Sclerosis Foundation will be accepting applications through June for its Cooling Program, which provides cooling garments to multiple sclerosis patients whose condition has left them heat-sensitive.

Although 60 to 80 percent of patients are heat-sensitive, there were no MS-specific cooling garments on the U.S. market until ThermApparel was born. The foundation is partnering with the company on the Cooling Program initiative, which is for patients on limited incomes.

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First Generation Disease-modifying Therapies Pose Low Infection Risk in MS, Study Finds

This relatively long-term study confirms pretty much what I would expect: Using an older MS medication, such as Avonex, Betaseron, or Copaxone, carries less of a risk of contracting an infection than using a newer therapy, such as Tysabri. Not studied by these researchers, however, is the effectiveness of the older Phase I therapies compared to Phase II. And I think that comparison is an important part of the process when a patient and a doctor decide on a treatment course.

A large group study showed that first-generation disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) do not increase the infection risk in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

Many of the DMTs used to reduce the risk of relapse in MS target the immune system and cause a suppression of the inflammatory response. Although helpful in treating the disease, these therapies may also increase the risk of developing subsequent infections.

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