New oral treatments available to multiple sclerosis patients
They mark an advance over injections and IV, says advocate
SUN JUNE 27, 2014
spilling from a bottle.
Images/Ingram Publishing
More than 12,000 multiple sclerosis patients in B.C. now have access to two oral treatments subsidized by the provincially funded drug program Pharmacare.
The latest entry approved this week for reimbursement is dimethyl fumarate (trade name Tecfidera), a drug that can be used on adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, by far the most common sub-type of the disease.
Last spring, fingolimod (trade name Gilenya) was also approved by the province. If taken twice a day, the full cost of Tecfidera would be about $25,000 a year; Gilenya about $33,000, according to Pharmacare’s background information on the drugs.
“I think it’s significant because the other treatments thus far are injections or infusions (delivered intravenously) which are very invasive,” said Suzanne Jay, communications director for the MS Society of Canada, B.C. region. “It’s a tremendous relief to people to have the option of a pill.”
Canada has one of the highest rates of MS in the world with about 100,000 patients across the country.
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