(Reuters) - Biogen Idec Inc said on Wednesday its experimental multiple sclerosis drug peginterferon beta-1a reduced the annual relapse rate of patients with multiple sclerosis by 36 percent when dosed once every two weeks. The company, which presented its results at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting, said the drug reduced the proportion of patients who relapsed by 39 percent compared with patients who took a placebo. Peginterferon beta-1a, which will be marketed, if approved, under the brand name Plegridy, is an injectable drug designed to reduce the dosing schedule of standard interferon drugs such as Biogen's own Avonex, which are typically dosed at least once a week. In addition to Avonex, Biogen makes the MS drug Tysabri, which is widely considered the most effective on the market but has been linked with a potentially deadly brain infection known as PML. The company is also poised to launch a new MS drug, Tecfidera, a pill that many analysts believe could become the leading treatment for the disease. The company hopes that Plegridy will provide an option for patients seeking a less frequent dosing schedule. Biogen said the drug reduced the risk of 12-week disability progression by 38 percent compared … Continue reading →

by Angela King / KING 5 News KING5.com Posted on March 15, 2013 at 8:27 AM Updated Friday, Mar 15 at 8:41 AM Scientists at Swedish Medical Center are working on a treatment that could repair the damage caused by multiple sclerosis. MS is a disease that causes the immune system to attack the central nervous system. Patients can suffer a number of symptoms including numbness, blurred vision, or even paralysis. But researchers at the Swedish Neuroscience Institute are working on a new drug that could reverse these disabilities. "We realized that if we were able to stop the disease completely, we'd still have a lot of people with a lot of disabilities, so the ability to repair the damage would be a big move forward," said Dr. James Bowen from Swedish. Washington has some of the highest rates of MS in the country and North America. No one knows exactly why, or what causes the disease. While most patients are diagnosed between 20 and 50 years old, there's a growing number of juvenile cases. The Swedish Neuroscience Institute is currently conducting 24 research studies on MS. The local scientists also helped study and test two new oral medications that … Continue reading →

Editor's Choice Main Category: Multiple Sclerosis Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience;Clinical Trials / Drug Trials Article Date: 21 Mar 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for: Excellent Results For MS Drug "Plegridy" MS is a an autoimmune disease in which the immune system begins to attack the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system). Symptoms include weakness, inability to move arms or legs, loss of balance, and numbness. Plegridy is a member of the interferon class of drugs, which are often used as first line treatment for MS. It works by extending the half-life and exposure of interferon beta-1a in the body. According to a previous study, published in the Archives of Neurology, interferon treatment is able to achieve and sustain a response as measured by regular magnetic resonance imaging evaluations. The results, which were presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting, revealed that in comparison to placebo, Pledigry reduced the annual relapse of patients with multiple sclerosis by 36 percent and reduced the proportion of patients who relapsed by 39 percent. The Phase 3 ADVANCE clinical trial was a two-year-long study which aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Plegridy in more than 1,516 … Continue reading →

A clinical trial test of a vein-opening procedure for multiple sclerosis suggests it does not improve symptoms, and in a few patients symptoms worsened. The small pilot study was designed to test the safety and effectiveness of using balloons to unblock veins in the neck and chest of people with MS. Chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency or CCSVI is a hypothesis put forward by Italian vascular surgeon Dr. Paolo Zamboni. He suspects that narrowed neck veins create a backup of blood that can lead to lesions in the brain and inflammation. On Friday, researchers at the University of Buffalo discussed the findings of their clinical trial involving 10 MS patients in an initial safety trial of the real and fake procedures and 20 who were randomized to receive treatment or a placebo. "All the outcomes that we looked at which had to do with clinical disease, functional status, quality of life, cognition there was no appreciable difference between the two arms," principal investigator Dr. Adnan Siddiqui, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of Buffalo, said in an interview. When the investigators reviewed the MRI data, Siddiqu said they found new activity in patients who received the balloon angioplasty treatment. … Continue reading →

BUFFALO - A local study of the safety and efficacy of angioplasty to treat multiple sclerosis has found that the intervention, sometimes called "liberation therapy," did not improve patient outcomes and, in a few cases, made symptoms worse. Buffalo researchers say the trial is the first rigorous study of angioplasty for chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI, a treatment that has gained worldwide attention since 2009 when an Italian researcher, Dr. Paolo Zamboni, found a relationship between MS and signs of abnormal blood drainage in veins. The theory upset current thinking on MS, a disease thought to be the result of an abnormal immune system attacking the brain, nerves and spinal cord. Some doctors rushed to perform balloon angioplasty or place stents in veins to reduce MS symptoms, even though the theory remained unproven and Zamboni's work involved few patients and was uncontrolled, meaning there was not another group studied to compare results. University at Buffalo researchers will present their findings March 20 at the annual American Academy of Neurology meeting in San Diego. The study's key finding is that while the treatment is safe and was not necessarily associated with serious adverse events, it did not provide sustained improvement … Continue reading →

PLEASANTON, Calif. and ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Thoratec Corporation (THOR), a world leader in device-based mechanical circulatory support (MCS) therapies to save, support and restore failing hearts, and the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center, a leader in cardiac care, today announced a major milestone in the treatment of heart failure. Joe Ann Bivins, 68, of Detroit, Michigan, has been supported for the longest reported period of time on a single heart assist device. The device, the HeartMate II Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD), supplements her heart's pumping function and allows her to live her life virtually free from the symptoms of heart failure. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130319/SF79560) Joe Ann was implanted in July 2005 at the University of Michigan, early in the HeartMate II pivotal clinical trial. Now at nearly eight years of support, Joe Ann exemplifies the life-improving benefits of LVAD therapy for heart failure. According to the American Heart Association, there are approximately 5.8 million individuals living with chronic heart failure in the United States, many of whom may face a similar decision to the one made by Joe Ann almost eight years ago. Joe Ann's heart had become too weak to adequately pump blood, leaving her … Continue reading →

TORONTO A small clinical trial of the so-called liberation treatment for multiple sclerosis has found that the intervention did not improve patients symptoms and in some cases even made their disease worse. The University of Buffalo study of 30 MS patients concluded that the treatment which unblocks neck veins to improve blood drainage from the brain is safe. But researchers say the procedure showed no benefit on numerous measures of symptoms, disease progression and quality of life. As well, MRI scans showed some patients had increased brain lesions, one of the hallmarks of the progressive neurological disease, after undergoing the vein-opening procedure. What we found was rather surprising and unexpected, said neurosurgeon Dr. Adnan Siddiqui, co-principal investigator of the pilot study. It was quite the opposite of what we originally expected to find. The study showed that endovascular treatment of stenosed (blocked) veins had no effect in MS patients. Despite the findings, both Saskatchewan and Health Canada said Friday they are going ahead with separate trials to determine whether the experimental treatment for MS has any validity. The idea was first put forward by Italian vascular surgeon Paulo Zamboni, who hypothesized in 2009 that narrowed and twisted veins in the … Continue reading →

By Dow Jones Business News, March 20, 2013, 08:05:00 AM EDT By Saabira Chaudhuri Biogen Idec Inc. ( BIIB ) said it has seen positive results from the first year of a two-year late-stage study of its investigational candidate for a type of multiple sclerosis. Biogen said results from its two-year pivotal Phase 3 "Advance" study of Plegridy, its investigational candidate for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis dosed once every two weeks or every four weeks, indicate that Plegridy significantly reduced multiple sclerosis disease activity, including relapses, disability progression and brain lesions, compared with placebo at one year. "These full first-year results provide a more complete picture of Plegridy and its positive effects on the reduction of relapse, disability progression and lesion development," said Peter Calabresi, director at the Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis Center. "These data suggest that, if approved, Plegridy may offer the benefit of a less frequent dosing schedule, which would be a meaningful advance for people living with multiple sclerosis." Plegridy--also called peginterferon beta-1a--met the primary endpoint of reducing annualized relapse rate at one year by 36% compared with placebo. It also met its secondary endpoint, reducing the proportion of patients who relapsed by 39% compared with placebo. Additionally, … Continue reading →

TORONTO A small clinical trial of the so-called liberation treatment for multiple sclerosis found that the intervention did not improve patients symptoms and in some cases even made their disease worse, researchers say. The University of Buffalo study of 30 MS patients found that the treatment which involves unblocking neck veins to improve blood drainage from the brain is safe. But the procedure had no benefit for patients symptoms, disease progression or quality of life measures. As well, MRI scans showed some patients had increased brain lesions, one of the hallmarks of the progressive neurological disease, after undergoing the vein-opening procedure, said neurosurgeon Dr. Adnan Siddiqui, co-principal investigator of the pilot study. What we found was rather surprising and unexpected, said Siddiqui. It was quite the opposite of what we originally expected to find. The study showed that endovascular treatment of stenosed (blocked) veins had no effect in MS patients. Italian vascular surgeon Paulo Zamboni proposed in 2009 that a condition he dubbed chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency might be a cause of MS. Zamboni suggested that opening up neck and chest veins with balloon angioplasty, the same procedure used to unblock coronary arteries, could help relieve symptoms and might even … Continue reading →