• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

New "Pill Form" MS Treatments Debut

Gemini

Senior Member
Messages
1,176
Location
East Coast USA
Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2012, "As MS Pills Debut, Doctors Prescribe a Dose of Caution"

Newest pill, Aubagio, another called BG-12 in the pipeline, join Gilenya which was approved in 2010.

Excerpts of interest to ME/CFS:
"Reseachers say multiple sclerosis wreaks havoc with a patient's immune system, causing it to damage healthy nerves and the myelin sheaths that wrap around nerve fibers, disrupting signals from the brain. Researchers still don't understand why the immmune system goes haywire.
They believe it is a combination of genetic and environmental factors, including exposure to a virus."

"It is difficult to find multiple sclerosis treatments that are both effective and safe, experts say, because the understanding of the disease continues to evolve."
 
Messages
445
Location
Georgia
BG-12 is the only drug in the pipeline that gives me any hope. It is an MS drug that may have wide implications for many unexplained autoimmune illnesses. Including ours.

It is based on the theory of oxidative stress and glutathione defiency, most prominently developed and espoused by our late, great benefactor Dr. Rich Van Kronynberg. The drug is based on a commonly used anti-psoriasis drug, still prescribed in Europe. So it has the distinction of *having actually worked as an anti-inflammatory in other conditions*. In an age when pharma companies produce more placebo snake oil than effective drugs, this is a big deal.

Add to that, the maker Biogen, spent hundreds of millions to test and re-test, and found actual, concrete benefits for the patients. I don't trust most drug company results, because they have such a huge, compelling profit motive to say something "works" when it is doesn't. But in the case, there seems to be some overlapping circumstantial evidence. I'm sure it will be extremely expensive, but at least it does not involve self-injecting.