patientx wrote:Interesting contradiction:
CureIous wrote:People can talk all they want that that is just conspiracy nonsense, but fact remains how quickly this story airs
CureIous wrote:I knew about laquinimod years ago , these other drugs are nothing new
The fact is, like it or not, these drugs have gone through phase III trials and are nearing FDA approval. That is why they are being reported. CCSVI has been published by one man, and another study is ongoing.
Haha I knew u were gonna say that.
Glad the headline is "New oral pill for MS" and not, "New oral pill can KILL you but it's a pill nonetheless!". Or, "Better hope you don't have a latent herpes virus kicking around your system when you take this". You know, the whole truth not just the catchy "New pill for MS" garbage, it's NOT new, that's the point. It's old news, and it's efficacy isn't what one would call "stellar" either, so what value is a study? To prove it doesn't kill ALL MS patients?
They report on every medical thing imagineable studies or not, why is this story given so much more credence than CCSVI which is THE biggest story in MS right now?
I'm sorry if Merck doesn't like it or any of the other pharmies, they roll the dice they takes their chances..
I have some salient, overlooked quotes from this story:
It’s too soon to know if the pills will be approved by the government or widely adopted by physicians, they said.
Weakened immunity
But they also found both drugs significantly lowered immune defenses that allowed latent herpes viruses to rage in some patients — in one study, two people died of unchecked herpes infections.
The new studies reveal the trade-offs:
A two-year study gave 1,300 MS patients cladribine or dummy pills. Patients on the drug were only half as likely to suffer relapse as those on placebo, and were 30 percent less likely to have worsening disability. However, 20 percent to 30 percent of the cladribine patients developed low counts of infection-fighting white blood cells, compared to just 2 percent of the others. And 20 cladribine patients suffered herpes infections versus none in the dummy pill group.
A two-year study gave about 1,000 patients fingolimod or dummy pills. Only 17 percent of fingolimod patients had worsening disabilities from MS after three months, compared to 24 percent in those on placebo. Herpes infections were about the same in the pill and placebo groups, but respiratory infections like bronchitis and pneumonia were nearly twice as common in the fingolimod patients.
A one-year study of 1,200 patients tested fingolimod against shots of Avonex, a form of interferon. Those taking the pills had less brain shrinkage — a measure of progression of the disease. About 20 percent of patients on the pill had relapses versus 30 percent on the dummy pills.
In that study, 9 percent of those on fingolimod had serious side effects, compared to 6 percent of those on Avonex. Two people on fingolimod died of herpes infections; six had eye swelling and eight had skin cancers.
Gee, bad news about CCSVI travels the net faster than a mouse click, but "NEW MS PILL" has no negative connotations at all. Guess it will be one of those "read the insert" things
Mark