2007-10-13 - 10:52 a.m.
On Wednesday, Nya sent me an article about an MS drug in development called Revimmune. Most press I�ve found on it at the moment focuses on the company producing the drug. There�s a lot of positivist hyperbole, probably taken from press releases, tossing around the word �cure� and such. Still�
The medication is going into a �Phase 3 trial�, the final testing stage before it can be approved by the FDA for prescription use. I believe it�s gotten some sort of fast track status because early results suggested it�s so effective on a condition that impacts society so much that it would be ridiculous to slow down its release.
I called the manufacturer on Wednesday to ask about being a subject in the trial. Nya and I had thought that the company would be swamped with requests to participate. But they seem not to be (at least not yet; news about the trial just got out). The woman I spoke with was surprised and delighted to hear from me.
We talked about my MS progression and she asked me to send her a follow up email. Only two days later, just yesterday, I got a phone call from a doctor at Johns Hopkins University, where the drug was developed. He asked more questions about my health status and told me a bit about how it all works.
Basically, the drug kills off your entire immune system and leaves some bone marrow stem cells to regenerate a whole new immune system which won�t attack the myelin sheath insulating your nerves (this misguided autoimmune response is the central problem in multiple sclerosis).
This procedure is very similar to the trial at Northwestern I applied to be a subject in two years ago, but was rejected. Having no immune system for a few weeks sounds pretty extreme. I have to ask where someone goes during this period to avoid opportunistic infection. Hospitals are full of germs and homes have bugs too.
But then having MS is pretty extreme too. Unknown chance of me getting better, unknown chance of me getting hit with an illness while my immune system is down. Now that I�m thinking about it, I don�t really know the chance that an opportunistic germ is fatal, but it may be relatively low.
But the chance to walk on the beach with Nya is everything I could hope for�
� 2007 Geoff Gladstone
If you�ve ever enjoyed my writing, please donate to the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis and/or the Montel Williams MS Foundation.
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