Charles Moore,  —

The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) has updated its smartphone app My MS Manager with several new features. My MS Manager, a first-of-its kind mobile phone app supporting both Apple’s iPhone (iOS 7.0 or later) and Android mobile devices (also works with iPads, iPod touch, and Android…

Most employers these days talk about having workforce diversity oriented policies that support hiring people living with disabilities and chronic diseases, but what distinguishes rhetoric from reality? What in positive, practical terms can companies do in support of helping people living with visible or invisible challenges find and keep gainful…

Compassionate Care Center of New York (CCCNY), based in Newark, Wayne County, is applying to become one of five registered commercial suppliers that will be licensed in New York State to grow medical marijuana. Licensed suppliers will serve the condition-specific palliative needs of qualifying patients with safe and accessible…

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) College of Pharmacy and Oregon State University (OSU) at Corvallis, and Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland, Oregon, have documented an “alarming rise” over the last 20 years in the costs of drugs used to slow the progression of multiple sclerosis…

San Diego based medical software developer CorTechs Labs announced that it has entered into a partnership agreement with multinational pharmaceutical maker Novartis Pharma AG. The two companies will collaborate in further development of Cortechs’ powerful NeuroQuant breakthrough 510(k) cleared software brain volume quantification device that targets identification, measurement and tracking…

Cambridge, Massachusetts based PatientsLikeMe has released results of a novel study conducted in conjunction with pharmaceutical maker Biogen that demonstrated how people living with multiple sclerosis (MS) can employ wearable activity tracking devices to monitor, collect, and share their personal mobility data. That information can potentially be relevant for…

Amarantus BioScience Holdings, Inc. (Amarantus) is a San Francisco based, development-stage, publicly-traded biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing first-in-class treatments and diagnostics in neurology for diseases associated with the dysfunction of a wide range of biological pathways, including protein misfolding, cell cycle dysregulation, neurodegeneration and apoptosis (Programmed Cell…

MedDay, a Paris, France based biotechnology company specializing in treatment of neurological disorders, has released more information regarding the design of its (MS-SPI) clinical trial that is investigating the efficacy and safety of the investigational medicine MD1003 in treatment of primary and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). Progressive…

Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Woodlands, Texas, has announced the successful conclusion of negotiations amending its option and license agreement with Darmstadt, Germany based pharma multinational Merck’s “Merck Serono” division. Under terms of the revised agreement, Opexa will receive a $3 million payment to…

Coffee Drinking may confer the side-benefit of lowering the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) in susceptible individuals, according to a meta-analysis of Swedish and American studies to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 67th Annual Meeting to be held April 18-25, 2015 at the…

The 2012 and 2014 ballots approving legalization of cannabis in four U.S. states have stirred the pot, so to speak, on a wide range of issues and nuances related to the herb — not least marijuana’s clinical use as a therapeutic agent. Medical marijuana remains a topic of debate…

A report by Bloomberg News‘ Caroline Chen says multinational biotech firm Biogen Idec Inc. is teaming up with Internet and IT colossus Google, pooling efforts to research environmental and biological factors potentially associated with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) progression. Ms. Chen notes that the Biogen Idec relationship is…

Irish poet, playwright,wit, design critic, and controversialist Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was one of the giants of the literary scene in the late Nineteenth Century — not only in the U.K. where he lived and worked most of his life, but on the continent and in North America, which he visited twice. An international…

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) announced late last month its New Drug Application (NDA) to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for the multiple sclerosis relapse prevention drug glatiramer acetate (active ingredient) — which is sold in some markets under the trade name Copaxone. Developed by Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries…

Canada has one of the world’s highest Multiple Sclerosis (MS) prevalence rates. Some 100,000 Canadians live with the disease, and three people are newly diagnosed each day. Most people are diagnosed with relapsing MS in their twenties and thirties, and MS is the most common neurological disease affecting young adults…

A new study published online before print in the journal JAMA Neurology reports that three years on, most members of a small subject group of patients with active relapsing-remitting (RR) multiple sclerosis (MS) who had received an experimental high-dose immunosuppressive therapy (HDIT) followed by a transplant of their own…

In a new study, researchers based at the Imperial College, London will follow in unprecedented detail the events and experiences in lives of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in order to improve evaluation protocols for MS treatments. MS is estimated to afflict more than two million people globally, more…

With 100,000 Canadians living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and three people newly diagnosed every day, Canada has one of the highest prevalence rates for the disease in the world. Most people are diagnosed with relapsing MS in their twenties and thirties, and MS is the most common neurological disease affecting…

Cambridge, Massachusetts based Genzyme announced Friday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the company’s new drug Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) for treatment of people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, which includes people who experience periodic MS attacks, such as those who have relapsing-remitting MS or secondary-progressive…

Oceans of Hope, a 67-foot sail yacht currently docked at North Cove Marina, New York, is on a round-the-world voyage to become the first ship to ever circumnavigate with a crew of people who have Multiple Sclerosis. The voyage, initiated by Sailing Sclerosis Foundation, set sail from Copenhagen, Denmark…

New Zealand and Australia-based Innate Immunotherapeutics Limited, a medical biotechnology company with offices in Sydney and Auckland, has issued an update regarding its Phase 2B trial for secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) and other recent activities. The Phase 2B MIS416 trial Patient dosing with MIS416…

A study presented at the 61st annual meeting of the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) held October 29 to November 1 in Savannah, Georgia, further corroborates growing awareness of a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in neuromuscular disease.’ The study, entitled “…

New Zealand and Australia-based Innate Immunotherapeutics Limited, a biotechnology company with offices in Sydney and Auckland, has designed and manufactured a unique immunomodulator microparticle pharmaceutical technology. This technology can be used to induce the human immune system designed to fight certain cancers and infections, or modulate certain immune…

Genzyme, a Sanofi company, has announced that the Canadian province of Québec’s Institut national d’excellence en santé et services sociaux (INESSS) has recommended that the company’s multiple sclerosis (MS) drug Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) 12 mg be included on the provincial drug formulary under “Médicament d’exception” as a second-line treatment for…

The first round of 22 research grants have been awarded to projects in nine countries by the International Progressive MS Alliance, with the goal of removing barriers to developing treatments for progressive MS. The 22 projects were chosen from 195 research proposals submitted by researchers in 22 countries and…

Loss of myelin, the fatty protective sheath around nerve fibers, is a characteristic of multiple sclerosis (MS). A new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study by a team of researchers has determined that people with MS lose myelin in the gray matter of their brains, and that the amount of loss…

New research published online ahead of print in the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) journal Radiology on August 26, reports that a gaming accessory known as a balance board for the Nintendo Wii console may assist people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in reducing the risk of falling accidentally. Balance…

Welsh health minister Mark Drakeford has announced that Wales has become the first UK country to authorize a cannabis-based medicine under its National Health Service. Sativex, a proprietary oral spray cannabinoid medicine that has been licensed in the UK to treat muscle spasms and stiffness in people…

The Republic of Ireland is legalizing the medical prescription of cannabis for people with Multiple Sclerosis, under a new revision to current Irish laws. The Irish Mirror reports that Pat O’Mahony, CEO of Ireland’s Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) confirmed July 7 that the Department of Health is…

An Everyday Health blog by New Jersey-based husband and wife team Brad and Robynn Mann notes that more time spent outdoors during the warmer months means more potential encounters with insects that can be disease vectors, notably mosquitos and ticks. Mr. Mann, who is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS),…