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Biogen halts enrollment In Tysabri trial, citing slow pace

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:25 pm
by MSUK
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Biogen Idec Inc. has halted enrollment in a large, long-term clinical trial aimed at testing the earlier use of multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri, citing a slower-than-expected pace of finding participants.

The Surpass study aims to test the effectiveness of Tysabri, sold with Elan Corp, when patients switched from more widely used drugs. Tysabri has proved to be highly effective; however, because of a link to a rare brain infection, the patients taking the drug tend to be those who have stopped responding to other drugs or have aggressive cases of MS.,... Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/1768

Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 6:28 pm
by MegansMom
This is wonderful news, the risks vs benefits of this drug are becoming more well known and people are lining up for CCSVI diagnosis rather than this high risk drug.

Finally big Pharma got the message.

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 9:43 pm
by MSBOB
I was just asked yesterday (4/8/2011) to join the Surpass study. Biogen would pay for the treatments with Tysabri. I am going through the info on it.

I wonder what extent they halted it? I think that I was asked because of the severity of my current status, chance to heal some of the old damage (not black holes but I got those too), and the consideration of going on Tysabri. I got a blood draw to check for JCV antibodies.

Truth is, I am scared to death about going on Tysabri. It looks to be effective, and hundreds of people are benefiting. It is not a long term strategy, and I was told that no one should go on it for more than a couple of years.

No comment about the CCSVI.

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 4:39 pm
by scorpion
MegansMom wrote:This is wonderful news, the risks vs benefits of this drug are becoming more well known and people are lining up for CCSVI diagnosis rather than this high risk drug.

Finally big Pharma got the message.
Wonderful news? Tysarbi has been a blessing to many people but yeah there is certainly a small risk of PML that patients should consider before starting it. Of course once it is discovered that problem with veins will cure the common cold and every other disease under the sun there will be no need for any medication whatsoever! :roll:

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 5:10 pm
by sou
Everyone is free to participate to the trial, scorpion, including you and me. You can't force anybody take the risk, can you?

Whatever the reasons, patients seem to be afraid of this drug. Personally, I find Tysabri yet another immune suppressant, rushed to the market, inadequately tested with unknown long term complications against a disease never proven autoimmune.

I find the comments about CCSVI completely inappropriate and off-topic to be posted here. Again, whoever feels that this trial should be helped is free to participate instead of blaming people for being afraid and looking elsewhere for a solution.

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 5:13 pm
by Brainteaser
scorpion wrote:has been a blessing to many people but yeah there is certainly a small risk of
Just trying to be objective - couldn't the same comment be made about CCSVI? In other words, less than ideal results for Tysabri is accepted by many but less than ideal results for CCSVI seems a threshold point for rejection by many.

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 6:55 pm
by scorpion
sou wrote:Everyone is free to participate to the trial, scorpion, including you and me. You can't force anybody take the risk, can you?

Whatever the reasons, patients seem to be afraid of this drug. Personally, I find Tysabri yet another immune suppressant, rushed to the market, inadequately tested with unknown long term complications against a disease never proven autoimmune.

I find the comments about CCSVI completely inappropriate and off-topic to be posted here. Again, whoever feels that this trial should be helped is free to participate instead of blaming people for being afraid and looking elsewhere for a solution.
I assume you are talking about MegansMom initial comments about CCSVI?

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 9:33 pm
by MSBOB
This stuff is hard.

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 12:11 pm
by HarryZ
Wonderful news? Tysarbi has been a blessing to many people but yeah there is certainly a small risk of PML that patients should consider before starting it. Of course once it is discovered that problem with veins will cure the common cold and every other disease under the sun there will be no need for any medication whatsoever! :roll:
Small risk of PML? Hmmm....it's jumped by 50% for 2-3 year users using Biogen's own numbers. I think that increase alone has made many potential Tysabri users step back and consider long and hard before starting the drug.

Gee Scorp, you are starting to sound like some of our esteemed MS docs who have made similar kinds of comments about Zamboni and CCSVI.

Harry

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:24 pm
by scorpion
HarryZ wrote:
Wonderful news? Tysarbi has been a blessing to many people but yeah there is certainly a small risk of PML that patients should consider before starting it. Of course once it is discovered that problem with veins will cure the common cold and every other disease under the sun there will be no need for any medication whatsoever! :roll:
Small risk of PML? Hmmm....it's jumped by 50% for 2-3 year users using Biogen's own numbers. I think that increase alone has made many potential Tysabri users step back and consider long and hard before starting the drug.

Gee Scorp, you are starting to sound like some of our esteemed MS docs who have made similar kinds of comments about Zamboni and CCSVI.

Harry
You do realize only .002% of people on Tysabri ever develop PML? For the people who do get PML it is a horrible experience however it is a rare occurence. I am not promoting Tysarbi or bashing Tysarbi but I am saying it has worked wonders for SOME people. Everyone please calm down. Just because Tysarbi is effective for some people in no way points to the slow and painful death of CCSVI. Geeesh.

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:52 pm
by HarryZ
You do realize only .002% of people on Tysabri ever develop PML? For the people who do get PML it is a horrible experience however it is a rare occurence. I am not promoting Tysarbi or bashing Tysarbi but I am saying it has worked wonders for SOME people. Everyone please calm down. Just because Tysarbi is effective for some people in no way points to the slow and painful death of CCSVI. Geeesh.
Not sure how you got that percentage but if about 50,000 Tysabri patients (those who used the drug for more than just a few months) and 102 have got PML, that is much higher than .002%....like about .2%. Of course that's a small number but when you see that the risk has gone up significantly from what Biogen has preached to us for a few years, then there has to be some real concern.

I do know that several MS docs are very cautious about putting their patients on Tysabri because of this increased risk. There just isn't enough confidence with the safety of the drug especially when the numbers have increased that much.

It's too bad that Biogen rushed the drug to the market and continually try and minimize the PML risk. But that's the way big pharma operates and it's all about the bottom line and share prices.

Harry

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 3:59 pm
by Lyon
..

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 6:30 pm
by HarryZ
Considering that we are talking about GETTING PML and not dying of PML an American has a much, much higher chance of color=blue]DYING[/color] in a car accident (1 in 88 ) than getting PML.
I'm trying to figure out what the chances of dying in a car accident have to do with the risk of getting PML while using Tysabri!
Considering that benefit from Tysabri has been documented and that people on this website have repeatedly said they MS risks are daunting enough that they are willing to accept the risk of......say venoplasty for undocumented benefit.....as scorpion said "For the people who do get PML it is a horrible experience " but PML is a rare occurrence and benefits of Tysabri have been documented.
This obviously highlights the ongoing difficulty MS patients have in trying to decide what kind of treatment they should choose. While Tysabri has documented benefits, (so do the CRAB drugs and look at their dismal long term results) venoplasty has documented benefits as well albeit small numbers to this point since it is a very new procedure for MS. And although the PML risk rate is low (but growing) that's of little consequence to the patient that ends up getting it.

What gets me about venoplasty is the very unprofessional comments by some MS docs who have ridiculed Zamboni's work and called him a quack without knowing much if anything about what he did or is doing. And that just causes more grief to MS patients everywhere.

Harry

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 8:51 pm
by sou
Only 0.002% of patients may be getting PML, but nearly 100% of them lives with the fear of getting it. Let's put aside the cancer risk, the unknown long term complications and the horrific rebound effect.

And why must everything be compared to choosing to live with a normal venous system? This is boring and irrelevant.

Re: PML risk %

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:39 pm
by NHE
Lyon wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/6kecr2h wrote:The challenge here is that many, many more people have been infected with the JC virus in their lives than will ever develop PML. In fact, one study conducted in Sweden showed that 61% of people with MS tested positive for antibodies to the JC virus – a huge percentage, considering that less than .002% of people on Tysabri ever develop PML. The test is pretty effective if the idea is to prevent all cases of PML by refusing to give them PML, but that approach does exclude many people who would be eligible for Tysabri.
It doesn't matter who did the math, it's still wrong.

(102/50,000)*100 = 0.2% not 0.002% :!:


NHE