September 19, 2016 News by Patricia Silva, PhD #ECTRIMS2016 – Treatment of Progressive MS May Have Delayed Result There might be years-long lags in response to disease-modifying drugs in patients with progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study that analyzed data from two large clinical trials of progressive MS patients. The study fuels the idea that clinical trials of disease-modifying drugs for progressive MS need…
September 16, 2016 News by Patricia Silva, PhD #ECTRIMS2016 – Researchers Disagree on Feasibility of MS Bone Marrow Transplants On the second day of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) 2016 CongressĀ Sept. 14-17 in London, researchers shared their views on bone marrow transplants for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). The debate, āBone marrow transplantation is a justifiable treatment for active relapsing…
September 8, 2016 Columns by Ed Tobias Have a Say About MS Drugs Anyone with a chronic medical problem knows how expensive drugs can be, and how a drug that you need can be here today ā¦ gone tomorrow on the list of drugs that your health plan will pay for. You also know that cost and insurance coverage aren’t the only…
July 22, 2016 Columns by admin Action Is Needed: Costs Limit MS Patients’ Access to DMTs A recent survey of more than 6,000Ā multiple sclerosis patients in the United States found that health insurance coverage can decide their access toĀ disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), and that that coverage is worsening, leaving a good numberĀ struggling to be able to pay for their treatment. As an MS patient myself, I find…
July 22, 2016 News by InĆŖs Martins, PhD Disease Modifying Drugs Seen to Help Protect MS Patients with Benign Status from Greater Disability Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) and people diagnosed with the disease at aĀ younger age are more likely to have a benign course of MS, remaining fully functional for decadesĀ after disease onset, according to researchers at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in New York. Disease modifying drugs wereĀ also found…
July 18, 2016 News by Patricia Silva, PhD Access to MS Therapy in US Often Determined by Patients’ Insurance Coverage Individual health insurance coverage largely determinesĀ aĀ multiple sclerosis (MS) patient’s access to disease modifying drugs in the United States, mainly because of the rising costs of newer medications and near-annualĀ changes in insurance policy coverage, usually making such coverage more restrictive, researchers report. Ā These twin problemsĀ oftenĀ leave MSĀ patientsĀ relying on suboptimal therapiesĀ rather than those…
June 2, 2016 News by Ćzge Ćzkaya, PhD MS Drug Tysabri (Natalizumab) Gets Positive Opinion from European Medicines Agency Biogen, announced that TYSABRI, a drug developed to treat people with multiple sclerosis (MS) has received a positive opinion from the European Medicine Agency (EMA) recommending its approval to be used in people with elapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).
March 21, 2016 News by Patricia Silva, PhD CONy16: Debate Weighs MS Therapy Risks of Infections Like PML in Terms of Benefits Offered Certain therapies used toĀ treat multiple sclerosis (MS) have been associated with opportunistic infections of the central nervous system, including progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare but often fatal brain disorder caused by the John Cunningham (JC) virus. The question of whether the risk for opportunistic infections to MS patients outweighs…
March 18, 2016 News by Patricia Silva, PhD #CONy16: Scientists Debate MRI’s Role in MS Treatment Changes; Exclusive Interview with Prof. Xavier Montalban The precision of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurement has improved over the years, and now scans can identify brain damage before symptoms begin showing. Whether the presence of new or expanding lesions predict disease progression is, however, still controversial, and clinicians have no guidance when making treatment decisions about the…