Forty years ago, one of Dr. Stephen Hauser’s first patients was a young Harvard Law School graduate and White House aide with a case of multiple sclerosis that raced like a brush fire through her brain. She quickly lost her ability to speak, swallow, and breathe. She got married in a wheelchair in her hospital room, tethered to breathing and feeding tubes and dressed in her wedding gown.
“We had nothing to treat her with,” recalled Hauser, now director of the Weill Institute for Neurosciences at the University of California, San Francisco. It was such a searing moment for the young doctor, then at the beginning of his neurology training, that he decided to dedicate his career to MS research.
On Tuesday night — after decades of false starts, struggles to persuade disbelieving colleagues, and a tortuous path through the maze of drug discovery — Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG announced that the Food and Drug Administration had approved its new drug for MS based on Hauser’s research. Researchers say the medication is a significant improvement over other treatments for the debilitating disease, which afflicts more than 400,000 Americans and by some estimates more than 2 million more patients worldwide.
new info on MS
I am very interested in becoming a patient, so I can get this introduced to myself. I am 57, got diagnosed almost 2 yrs. Ago. I can barely walk 25 ft., cannot drive anymore. My mobility is terrible. I take Tecfidera, ampyra,baclofen,modafinil, myrbetriq. Please contact me.
Have you tried this I have info if you need it
Finally some hope for those of us who have PPMS.
It’s very nice to know about this update about drug for MS!thank you very much and more power!God bless all of you!
I have a question-all the information mentions RRMS and PPMS-my question is this not for people with SPMS? I have SPMS and would like to have SOMETHING to help all of us with SPMS.
Thank you,
Linda
How is Ocrelizumab different from Rituxumab? (Both are anti-CD-20+ MoAb and manufactured by Genentech.) Can anyone clarify for me? Thanks.
Got it. Different safety profile. No longer exclusive rights to Rituxan. Marketing advantage.
Dr Hauser, thanks for all those years of hard work. Will it be available for secondary progressive MS? After 30 yrs of RRMS my wife has progressed into SPMS with 100% disability, unable to do anything or even speak. Will it be reasonsble to use for this stage?
After failing 3 other MS drugs, I was running out of options. Now, not only do I have an appointment to receive ocrelizumab, but I also have HOPE! Thank you Dr. Hauser for your dedication, persistence, and insight. You and your team have given many MS families the ability to dance at future weddings. And I filled with hope, am dancing in my living room tonight!
Shame on the FDA that has approved other very expensive antineoplastic drugs
that do not work and have taken so long in approving a medication “Rituxan like” that since 2006 have given us parents of children with MS so much hope.
Thank You Dr.Hauser‼️‼️‼️