The MS Wire — Ed Tobias

A little over a year ago, in this column, I asked if it was safe for someone with MS to handle a gun. I wondered whether there would be safety issues due to problems with grip strength, balance, eyesight, and all the other various difficulties people with MS have…

Mavenclad Effective in Treating Highly Active MS, New CLARITY Analysis Shows Mavenclad isn’t approved for use in the U.S. but it is approved in Canada, Europe, and other parts of the world. Here’s another positive study of the therapy. Hopefully, it won’t be much longer before Americans…

Biogen, a pharmaceutical company that markets half a dozen MS therapies, is accused of paying doctors to prescribe its medications. A former Biogen employee claimed that the company paid fake consulting and speaking fees to doctors who prescribed Avonex (interferon beta-1a) and Tysabri (natalizumab) in 2009 and 2010. The company…

Here in the U.S., the price we pay for medications is complicated. The usual process is for a pharmaceutical company to set a high price for a medication when it first hits the market. But, like buying a car, that “sticker” price is negotiable. Health plans use pharmaceutical benefit…

#AAN2018 – Stem Cell Transplant is Effective Treatment for ‘Aggressive’ MS, Study Shows I like the fact that a study shows that stem cell transplant treatment is effective for aggressive MS. I love the fact that the efficacy was dramatic, reducing the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) levels…

The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) has just released some new guidelines about when to begin, change, and end disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) that are used to treat MS patients. The guidelines, published on April 23, encourage aggressive treatment when symptoms of MS first appear. They’re also patient-centric. And…

Editor’s note: To learn more about the link between the Epstein-Barr virus and MS, read Ed’s May 2020 column titled “More Evidence Links Epstein-Barr Virus to MS.” For years researchers have believed a link exists between the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and multiple sclerosis. But scientists have had…

5 MS Patients Across US Talk About How Ocrevus Has Changed Their Lives There’s high interest in Ocrevus (ocrelizumab), one of two disease-modifying therapies that have shown promise for reversing some multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms. (The other is Lemtrada.) So, I’m including this article. Keep in mind,…

Americans who want to treat their MS with a stem cell transplant have a tough road to follow. They’re forced to travel to Russia, Mexico, or somewhere else out of the country and to spend a lot of money to avoid the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s stem cell…

With apologies to Edgar Allan Poe, quoth the Lemmie, “Nevermore.” As I write this, the final brown bag of Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) has just begun to drip into a vein in my left arm. If all goes “as advertised,” this will be the final disease-modifying therapy I’ll ever receive.

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…

Do you have a question or comment about MS? Can you answer someone else’s question? We’ve just created an MS Forums section on Multiple Sclerosis News Today designed to spark conversations about our MS and to try to provide some answers from reliable sources when you have a…

As you read this, I likely will be in the middle of, or finished with, my second round of Lemtrada (alemtuzumab). Hopefully, this will be the final round of this disease-modifying therapy (DMT), and the final MS treatment of any kind, for me. Though some have required more,…

Online Meditation Course Seen to Help MS Patients Manage Symptoms in Clinical Trial Can someone use a website to learn how to meditate, and then do it well enough to have their MS symptoms improve? Well, maybe. This small study reports that patients who completed an online…

A few weeks ago I warned of the dangers that are possible when people turn to social media for information about their MS. But there’s another danger that technology and the internet have brought us: access to our own medical records. Sandra G. Boodman has taken…

For years, my wife and I have disagreed about smells. She smells something and I don’t. I tell her that her nose is too sensitive. She tells me to get out the air freshener. Over the 37 years since my MS diagnosis, this conversation has happened thousands of times.

Blood Stem Cell Transplants Improve RRMS Patients’ Disability, Phase 3 Trial Shows Here’s yet another study that shows the benefits of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, or AHSCT — the procedure in which a patient’s own stem cells are harvested and used to rebuild the…

I got a phone call from my MS One to One nurse, Lynn, today. One to One is the patient support service provided by Sanofi Genzyme for patients on the biotech company’s MS disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) Lemtrada (alemtuzumab) and Aubagio (teriflunomide). Lynn called to ensure that all…

As we all know, the cost of prescription medications can be outrageous. Disease-modifying therapies aside, even with insurance, the medications we get from a pharmacy can take quite a bite out of a budget. Though many people don’t know it, there are times when it can actually be…

New Spherix Report Finds PPMS Treatment Increased Significantly in Past Year Primary progressive MS has, in some eyes, been the stepchild of the disease-modifying therapies. PPMS patients move steadily downhill, and some believe treatments haven’t kept pace with their disease. Now, the research company Spherix has news…