January 20, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: High Cost of MS Meds; MS Progression, Relapse, and DMT Timing; Remyelinating Therapy Trial; Myelin Regeneration Mouse Study Almost Half of MS Patients Change or Stop DMT Due to High Financial Burden, Survey Shows I frequently see reports of this on multiple sclerosis patient websites. People with MS say they’ve been forced to change or even…
January 17, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias Stem Cells Versus DMTs: MS Treatments Go Head to Head People with multiple sclerosis have been waiting for this: A full-scale clinical trial testing the effectiveness of stem cell transplantation as an MS treatment. The trial is being conducted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and it’s…
January 13, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: AHSCT Trial Enlisting, Interferon-beta and Pregnancy, Probiotics, Language and Brain Health New Trial Compares Stem Cell Treatment to Available Therapies for Severe Relapsing MS This is a biggie. The U.S. National Institutes of Health is conducting a head to head study comparing autologous hematopoietic stem…
January 10, 2020 Columns by Ed Tobias I Was Seconds Away from Calling the Medics My nose started running about a week before the sledgehammer hit. Then came a chesty cough, not yet as serious as the one that had my…
December 20, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Who’s Willing to Accept More DMT Risk, You or Your Neuro? As more high-efficacy disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) are being made available, people with multiple sclerosis have to decide how much risk they’re willing to accept in exchange for the treatment’s potential benefits. It’s a tough decision not…
December 16, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: US Patent for Remyelination Therapy, Tysabri and Inflammation, Canada Funding Mavenclad MetP Pharma Awarded US Patent for Potential Remyelination Therapy Mention remyelination and the reaction from most of us with multiple sclerosis is probably, “How soon?” This announcement makes me hope that it’s now a…
December 13, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Have You Joined the Conversations in Our MS Forums? About a year and a half ago, Multiple Sclerosis News Today introduced a forums section. It’s a great place to post a question or comment about MS, or to answer someone else’s question. I’m one…
December 9, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Gilenya Generics, MS Pain and Fatigue Toolkit, Profit Drives MS Meds Prices, MS and Sugar Link FDA Approves Three Generic Versions of Novartis’ Gilenya for Treating Relapsing MS It’s always nice to hear about generics becoming available to replace expensive multiple sclerosis treatments. But I wonder whether these generics will…
December 6, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias I’ve Had Success with the Bioness L300 Go This Time Around I used the Bioness L300, a functional electrical stimulation (FES) device, for about seven years to counter my left foot drop. I strapped it to my leg just below the knee. As I began to take a step, it…
November 25, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Immunoadsorption, MS Therapies Approval, Cannabis-based Capsules for Study, Pregnancy and MS Immunoadsorption May Be Superior to Plasma Exchange in Treating Steroid-resistant Relapses in MS Steroids may be an effective treatment for multiple sclerosis relapses, but they have negative side effects. Many people report a…
November 22, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias It’s Freezing and I’m Stuck on My Scooter It happened on the coldest day of the season. It was 16 degrees F with wind chill. I was outside, using my electric scooter to take Joey, our cocker spaniel, for his early morning walk.
November 18, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Mayzent in EU for SPMS; Depression, Fatigue, and Quality of Life; Acthar Gel; Soothie Cushion CHMP Favors Mayzent as Oral Treatment Specifically for Active SPMS Patients in EU Mayzent (siponimod) is one of the newest disease-modifying treatments (DMT). I’m pleased that the Committee for Medicinal Products of Human Use…
November 15, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Is It Good that Google Is Crunching Our Healthcare Data? Google has quietly teamed up with Ascension, one of the largest healthcare organizations in the United States, to process the medical records of millions of people. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Project Nightingale” involves all sorts of…
November 11, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: EU Lemtrada Safety Guidance, Targeted Treatment Project, SPMS Patients Unaware of Diagnosis EMA Safety Group Advises Lemtrada Be Limited to ‘Highly Active’ RRMS Patients at Hospitals with ICUs I’m highlighting this report because, like several Europe-based doctors I know, I think that this decision is an…
November 8, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Top MS Worries Highlight the Need for a Comprehensive Care Program What worries you most about living with multiple sclerosis? I’m catching up with a small survey by Can Do MS, an organization that promotes health and wellness education programs. The survey results, released in September, show that disease…
November 4, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Vumerity Approval, Low Antibody Levels in MS Patients, GA Depot Trial, Tecfidera Study Vumerity Approved in US as Treatment for RRMS and Active SPMS By my count, Vumerity is the 18th disease-modifying therapy (DMT) that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved for multiple…
November 1, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias My Lemtrada Journey: Observations at 18 Months After Round 2 It’s time for another update on how I’ve been doing with my Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) treatments. The bottom line is that I’m doing well. Lemtrada is a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) delivered in two stages. The first stage entails…
October 28, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Cognitive Impairment, Genetic Variant Risk Factor, Protein Biomarkers, Gilenya Study Higher Intellectual Ability, Early-life Physical Activity May Protect Against Cognitive Impairment in MS, Study Suggests The finding that physical activity provides a protective effect for cognitive abilities makes sense to me. I recently listened…
October 25, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Am I Too Old for Aggressive MS Treatment? A question raised by neurologist Gavin Giovannoni on the Barts-MS blog lit up my radar recently. Dr. G asked whether “elderly” people with MS should be treated differently than those who are younger. The question arises because a…
October 21, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: Injectable DMTs, Ofatumumab ‘Success Story,’ MS and Night Shift Work, MS Biomarker Study #ECTRIMS2019 – Are Injectables Inappropriate for Active Relapsing MS Treatment? Injectable disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) have been around for a long time. I took part in a Phase 3 clinical trial for Avonex (interferon…
May 16, 2024 Columns by Benjamin Hofmeister If our MS lives were like Hollywood, what makes a movie a classic?