MS drugs singled out for adverse reactions

[Squeakycat]

All those neurologists looking out for your health by alerting you to the dangers of treatment for CCSVI have overlooked the adverse event data for the drugs they prescribe day in and day out.

Adverse Events, a company that analyzes the FDA data and flags drugs whose adverse event reports indicate they warrant more attention highlights two MS drugs as ones that should be on the FDA radar:

Aubagio (teriflunomide)
Tecfidera (Dimethyl Fumarate)

Almost more interesting is that of all classes of drugs, Adverse Events singles out MS drugs with a special table because they all score so highly in the Adverse Event scoring system for drug warranting further scrutiny by the FDA.

Registration is required but a new white paper by Adverse Events is available at:

Expediting Drug Safety Using FOIA:
An Analysis of 57,000 New Unreleased FAERS Reports

Here is the data from their special table on MS drugs showing what they call an Rx Score which indicates the level of concern that should be shown based on the seriousness and number of the reported adverse effects reported to the FDA:

RxScore for Multiple Sclerosis Drugs.
Novantrone (Mitoxantrone) 72.24
Ampyra (Dalfampridine) 58.13
Betaseron (Interferon Beta-1B) 54.96
Rebif (Interferon Beta-1A) 54.92
Lioresal (Baclofen) 52.00
Avonex (Interferon Beta-1A) 48.53
Aubagio (Teriflunomide) 48.36
Tysabri (Natalizumab) 47.40
Extavia (Interferon Beta-1B) 42.37
Prednisone (Prednisone) 41.60
Gilenya (Fingolimod) 31.77
Copaxone (Glatiramer Acetate) 29.00
Tecfidera (Dimethyl Fumarate) 11.23

[MarkLavelle]

Doesn't mean a thing if they won't tell you the details of their "proprietary algorithmic scoring model"

[JeanDeEau]

Squeakycat wrote

All those neurologists looking out for your health by alerting you to the dangers of treatment for CCSVI have overlooked the adverse event data for the drugs they prescribe day in and day out.

That shows a failure in logic.
Neurologists alerting to a possible problem with CCSVI treatments is one statement.
That they overlook one possible source of info on prescription drugs is a separate statement.
There is no connection between the two statements.

The Adverse Events data is not what anyone could call consistent, and your quotes from it do not add up. Why pick on
Aubagio and Tecfidera when the first has a score that is 4 times that of the latter, but you dont mention Copaxone which is in between the two?
You might just as well say that gas is $9 a gallon (Wow, Shock, Horror) without saying if you are quoting $US or $CDN or $AUS or $HK, or if you mean US Gallons or English gallons.
Like MarkLavelle says, a number is a number is a number, and means no more and no less than any other number.
Now a comparison between Adverse Events and Clarimed could be a whole lot of use if the scores could be compared in any meaningfull way - otherwise you are just comparing racehorses and sailboats.

[saimamom]

So who is reporting these adverse effects? If it's the users of these drugs, it should probably be higher numbers! I fit the "nice martyr" personality of an MS'er. And I just accepted the poison Copaxone. I never reported anything. I just quit.

[HarryZ]

So who is reporting these adverse effects? If it's the users of these drugs, it should probably be higher numbers! I fit the "nice martyr" personality of an MS'er. And I just accepted the poison Copaxone. I never reported anything. I just quit.

Normally these lists are compiled from "reported" incidents. But like you said, a lot of people would just quit using the drug and move on to something else. If you look at a drug like Tysabri, "officially" there are just under 500 cases of PML but one particular website says it's over 2500. Let's just say that the manufacturers of these drugs don't go out of their way to publish an adverse reaction list. That's very bad for business!!

Harry

[jerrygallow]

wait, I'm confused. What exactly are the concerns with Tecfidera, the drug you singled out in your post?

The problem I have with these generalizations is that they treat all problems as the same. It's like the new car reports that look at problems per 1000 units and rank the cars accordingly. But there is a BIG difference between a failed engine and a screw coming loose on your visor. But they count all problems equally. So Tecfidera causes lots of nausea and upset in digestion. But that's different than Tysabri killing your or putting you in a nursing facility requiring 24 hour care.

Also, it looks like they rank Tecfidera below prednisone, which is routinely prescribed to numerous conditions and is quite safe in the short term. It looks like Tecifidera is the safest drug for MS according to this list.

[centenarian100]

It looks like Tecifidera is the safest drug for MS according to this list.

Yeah...this looks silly as it ranks tecfidera as being more safe than copaxone.