crohnscanada.myfastforum.org

sh!+_stains · Joined: 07 Feb 2008 Posts: 40

Why more than ever we need to find the real cause:

What a bunch of absolute cow dung with buffalo chips on top, garbage:

WASHINGTON: Shares of Biogen Idec and Elan Corp. fell Wednesday after the companies reported some patients suffered liver injury after taking the drug Tysabri, a treatment for multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease.

The companies issued a warning to doctors that signs of liver injury appeared in patients as early as six days after first taking Tysabri.

The Food and Drug Administration posted the companies' letter to physicians online and said patients with any signs of liver damage should stop taking the drug immediately. Regulators updated the product's labeling to highlight liver risks last month, when it was approved for the new use in the intestinal disorder Crohn's Disease. The new language instructs doctors to tell patients about the liver problems.

A spokeswoman for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen said the company sent the letter to 2,500 physicians who prescribe the drug for multiple sclerosis, and may not have seen the updated labeling. She said liver problems have been reported by less than one in 1,000 Tysabri patients.

The drug posted sales of $343 million (€228 million) for Biogen last year.

Banc of America Securities analyst William Ho said the announcement was "old news," pointing out that liver problems with Tysabri were revealed at a meeting before FDA's expert advisers last year. They ultimately voted in favor of approving the drug for Crohn's Disease. Ho maintained a "Buy" rating for Biogen's stock with a one-year price target of $73.

Lehman Brothers analyst Jim Birchenough had a more cautious assessment, saying the warnings "could impact patient willingness to start therapy."

"It is difficult to screen and predict what patient may experience problems and this could further increase tentativeness," Birchenough wrote.

Biogen pulled Tysabri from the market in 2005 after three patients using the drug developed a rare nervous system disorder called multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML.

The FDA allowed the drug back on the market the following year, but only under a restricted distribution program.

The drug is distributed by Ireland-based Elan.

Shares of Biogen Idec Inc. fell $1.40, or 2.3 percent, to close Wednesday at $60.13. Shares of Ireland's Elan Corp. fell $1.54, or 6.3 percent, to $22.77.

admin · Site Admin Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 45

Thanks again. I posted the information on the front page of my site. It is unbelievable , don't they test this stuff first, oh yeah, they test it , they test it on us, lol. I wonder how many people have damaged livers resulting from this new drug. Crohn's is bad enough, the side effects are worse at times, now the drugs are causing more problems. I hope their stock falls through the floor. Diane

sh!+_stains · Joined: 07 Feb 2008 Posts: 40

looking at the Canadian Digestive Disease Week Final Program (http://www.cag-acg.org/uploads/cwwd/long%20program%20for%20website2.pdf), you can see why these drugs companies keep coming out with stupider and stupider ideas; the GIs keep get stupider and stupider listening to their mumbojumbo.

While I understand, and in fact encourage, the involvement of private corporations in funding research and drug development for any disease, when you look at the Program and see that every information session is sponsored by a major drug company, you begin to get the picture of why the GIs are so uninformed about MAP, and why the majority of drugs and subsequently some the research coming out is geared towards what the drug companies say it should be.

R&D is, relatively speaking, pretty cheap when you can develop a drug that magically "works" for a whole number of diseases, instead of just one, and you can treat and never cure these diseases, and best of all, you don't really need to know exactly how the drugs will work, just that they will work in clinic trials where you get to test them and find out all these nice side effects they have been finding: brain eating viruses, liver damage, lymphoma...oh, but not worry, many GIs and people in the know assure us that we are only years away from a cure with the incredible advancements in biologics