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ImStem Biotechnology, Inc. is one step closer to harnessing the power of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to treat multiple sclerosis. Most recently, ImStem announced the successful treatment of an animal model of multiple sclerosis (experimental autoimmune encephalitis, EAE) using mesenchymal stem cells derived from hESCs (hES-MSCs). Using hES-MSCs…

snig / Shutterstock.com Following yesterday’s publication of “Multiple Sclerosis Management – A Changing Landscape 2013,” a report outlining ongoing goals and focus points for advancing MS drugs and treatments, as a result of a meeting of specialists in Vienna, Austria, a new article…

Biogen Idec is currently sponsoring a clinical trial evaluating its therapy Tysabri (natalizumab) in patients with secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis. Although relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis is more common and well-researched, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society estimates approximately half of relapse-remitting patients will transition to secondary-progressive within 19 years of diagnosis. The…

Another study, in what has become a succession of Canadian studies, has failed to detect a link between blocked neck veins and multiple sclerosis proposed by Italian physician and researcher Dr. Paolo Zamboni in 2008 (a report in the Lancet noted that this hypothesis was originally posed by…

Cambridge, Mass. Based Genzyme, a Sanofi subsidiary, announced May 30 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review the company’s resubmission of its supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) seeking approval of its proprietary drug Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) for treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS).

The network of nationally recognized Multiple Sclerosis centers continues to grow throughout the United States. Recently, the Multiple Sclerosis Clinic at University of Texas (UT) Medicine San Antonio was selected as the new Multiple Sclerosis Partner in Care, a recognition granted by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The new…

Pharmaceutical company Novartis and health tracking and analytics platform Tictrac recently partnered up to support World Multiple Sclerosis Day and raise awareness for this disease by launching the campaign The 7-Day Challenge to Live Like You. The challenge, one of the first integrations of emerging technological trends by a pharmaceutical…

A new study on mice published in Nature Neuroscience finds that fingolimod (Novartis brand name Gilenya) a first-in-class sphingosine-1-phosphate-receptor modulator currently used in treating persons with severe relapsing remitting MS, may also have therapeutic value in treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The Nature Neuroscience study is titled…

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency recently offered a positive opinion for the marketing authorization of Biogen Idec’s Plegridy therapy, a pegylated interferon administered subcutaneously for adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The positive opinion will now be sent to the European Commission, which grants…

The Food and Drug Administration granted Orphan Drug Designation to Inhibikase Therapeutics’, Inc. lead product, IkT-001Pro (imatinib), to treat progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, PML affects the white matter of the brain usually through a virus known as Polyomavirus JC (JC…

Researchers from the Kessler Foundation have found that higher educational achievement reduces the negative impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on cognitive status. The study appeared in Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. It was reported in the study that cognitive ability after experiencing TBI differs in individuals even when their injury levels were comparable. As…

Steve Pepple / Shutterstock.com The 2012 state ballot approvals of marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington has been a catalyst for stirring 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…