Copaxone is a very popular treatment for Relapsing Remitting MS. Being the only approved medication for RRMS that is not an interferon, it offers a less severe side effect profile. Unfortunately, it is also the only treatment that requires an injection every single day... or does it?

A recent study showedthat many Copaxone users, particularly women, experience lipoatrophy ("dents" around the injection sites). This has created a great deal of interest in the idea that maybe it is not necessary to do daily injections. Spawning this idea was the rumor that studies had been done on Copaxone showing that every other day injections are just as effective as every day. It is not a rumor...

In an effort to educate our community as much as possible, we have located and now published these two studies. Be forewarned, they are very small and the results are not necessarily statistically significant. That being said, they show that skipping a day is about as effective as every day dosing, and the side effects were reduced. Excerpts follow:

"The authors reported that results with alternate day therapy were not statistically different from those achieved with daily treatment, aside from a lower dropout rate with alternate day methods."

"The most common adverse events reported with glatiramer acetate were injection site reactions, which appeared to be more frequent with [every day] vs [every other day] dosing."

To read the full article, click here or just go to our download section under Copaxone.

To Teva's (the manufacturer of Copaxone) credit, if you call their patient services arm Shared Solutions and ask them for this information, they will send it to you. But they will remind you, rightfully so, that Copaxone has only been approved (and thus, can only be recommended) for every day dosing.

This is a serious point, and let's please be clear: we are not posting this so that you will feel confident in switching yourself away from daily injections-- if you choose to pursue that route, that is a decision that MUST be made with your doctor's consent and not by yourself. These are small studies and while promising, they do not rigorously prove that every other day is as effective as every day, and the very real possibility exists that one could do great harm to themselves by reducing their dosage. While This is MS is open to experimentation, taking risks on your mainline treatment without the participation of your doctor is NOT advised. Instead we recommend that you print this study out and take it with you on your next neuro visit.

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