LAST UPDATE: 7/20/2006 9:11:11 PM
Posted By: Vickie Jean Summers
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Two pharmaceutical companies have launched a new drug in the fight against multiple sclerosis (MS).

Biogen Idec and Elan Pharmaceuticals announced they'll be marketing a drug called Tysabri® (natalizumab). The FDA approved Tysabri® in June for relapsing multiple sclerosis.

The drug is recommended for patients who did not respond to, or could not tolerate, other approved therapies approved for multiple sclerosis. It's not meant to be combined with other therapies and is not recommended for individuals who have compromised (weakened) immune systems.

The drug should be available for MS patients in several weeks. The delay will allow medical personnel to receive training for properly administering the drug.

Tysabri's given to patients by I.V. infusion on a monthly basis. Infusions of the drug are only available at registered infusion sites where medical personnel have been trained in Tysabri's use and in the risks of PML. PML, or progressive multifocal leukoencephalo­pathy, is a brain disease that occurred in three people who received the drug in clinical trials of Tysabri. Two of the patients who developed the disease died.

Tysabri is only available to patients and prescribing physicians who have registered in TOUCH, a prescribing program designed to assess the risk of PML.

For more information about Tysabri, visit the National MS Society's Web site at http://www.nationalmssociety.org/tysabri.asp.

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