NEWS AND TIPS FOR GOOD LIVING
Healthful Advice Patients want freedom to pick risky drug
Posted on Sat, Apr. 15, 2006

A survey of 200 patients with a type of multiple sclerosis known as relapsing remitting has found that more than half would definitely or probably use a drug that significantly reduces frequency of relapse or progression in disability even if the drug involves a 1-in-1,000 chance of a fatal side effect.

The survey was conducted by John E. Calfee for the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, established by the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution.

Those interviewed suffered substantial disability, most of them requiring a wheelchair or support for walking any significant distance, and over half suffered relapses in the past year. All were on drug therapy, while half had switched drugs and one-third had switched at least twice.

Willingness to tolerate risk bore little relationship to disability levels. A substantial majority agreed the FDA should tightly control drugs with safety concerns, but a larger majority agreed that once the FDA has provided a warning, patients should be free to decide with their physician whether to use such drugs.

After the FDA has reviewed drug safety and provided reasonable warnings, many MS patients say they wish to be free to choose to incur a 1-in-1,000 (or even greater) risk of a fatal side effect in return for significantly more effective drugs, and are willing to work with their physicians in doing so.

Despite estimates that it kills one patient in a thousand, an FDA expert panel recommended unanimously last month bringing back the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri. The drug was pulled from the market in February.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/living/home/14349386.htm?source=rss&channel=myrtlebeachonline_home