Friday 20 September 2013

Week 54

Campath 1h, alemtuzumab, Lemtrada - call it whatever you like, has been given approval by the European Commission to be used as a disease modifying treatment within the European Union. Hurrah! This means it can now be presented to the individual European governing bodies for a safety, efficacy and all that assessment. In the UK it's called the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence or NICE as the acronym goes(don't ask me where the H went, it's not my acronym, I just use it?). 

Hopefully, it'll get approval pretty quickly as the treatment has far better results than any other drug on the market to date and will make a massive improvement to the lives of many MSers around the globe. 

It is a very aggressive treatment. It kills your immune system, resetting it in the process and then your body will naturally rebuild it, but without its aggressive tendencies that we all know and hate. Obviously, no initial immune system will leave you open to all sorts of viruses and infections, so you have to watch who you socialise with for the first few weeks!

I tried to get my grubby mits on some Campath 4 (or was it 5 or 6) years ago when my hospital signed up for the CARE MS1 and CARE MS2 trials all those years ago. CARE2 was for people that had already tried other treatments and 1 was for those that hadn't yet tried any medication - recently diagnosed. I was on the CARE2 list and just as the trials were about to start, they decided to take part in just the one trial. Yep, you're right, CARE MS1! That's when they offered me Tysabri, which in all honestly was a pretty good 'runners up' prize. 

The Pharmaceutical company that has just been given the license to sell Lemtrada to our primary care trusts (PCTs) is called Genzyme and it is up to them what they charge. Now, they have got research and trials costs to recoup when pricing the treatment, but if they price it too high, our PCTs won't use it. Us mere mortals could be the losers in the potential financial 'Tug of war' battles between 'Big Pharma' in the red corner and Governments/Private Medical Insurance companies in the blue corner. Place your bets...

Seconds out, round one! 

*Ding ding*

Dan

3 comments:

  1. Campath 1h, alemtuzumab, Lemtrada Fingolimod (Gilenya)

    Who dreams up these names, LSD casualties? They look like the ramblings of a mad(wo)men let loose on a Scrabble board.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ^ Not a bad question, mr. James; I'ts all marketing not better then anywhere else I guess.. These pharmaceutical companies see opportunities to make some cash and grab the opportunity with both hands..
    Thanks for the update Dan. This means you'll get of Gilenya in a couple of weeks? What tipped the balans for you/your doctor? Did your Ms changed stages? Is there a washout-period? Guess I'll have a lot more studying (blog-reading) to do before seeing my neuro in a couple of weeks, all the best.

    ReplyDelete
  3. George Alemtuzumab named the drug after himself, James, as did Mildred Fingolimod. Sorry, but I don't know any scientists with the surname Lemtrada.

    Bert, I am borderline SPMS. My neuro has said it at my previous clinic appointment. When I get that diagnosis, they'll withdraw the treatment. It's just one of those things.

    ReplyDelete