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Friday, January 03, 2003In the MS study, 213 patients in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom were given six monthly infusions of one of two Antegren doses or a dummy drug. Patients who received the dummy drug had about 10 new brain lesions, compared to about one new lesion in those getting Antegren, a reduction of about 90 percent. The frequency of relapses was cut in half in the Antegren groups, to 19 percent from 38 percent in the comparison group. However, once treatment was stopped, there were no differences in the rates of relapses and new brain lesions between the two groups. The drug looks more promising for Crohn’s disease: The 248 patients in the Crohn's study in Europe received two infusions a month apart of either of two Antegren doses, a dummy drug or a combination of Antegren and the dummy drug. A scoring system measured their response over 12 weeks. Overall, the patients who received only Antegren had higher remission rates and response rates. The highest remission rate was 44 percent at six weeks in the low dose Antegren group, compared with 27 percent in the dummy drug group. In both studies, there were few serious side effects and there was no difference in side effects between the treatment groups. The Crohn’s disease study, however, didn’t look at relapse rates beyond the twelve week treatment period. As the author’s conclude, “the longer-term benefit and safety of this treatment...remain to be defined.” posted by Sydney on 1/03/2003 08:25:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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