The MS Wire

News, info and tips for living with multiple sclerosis

Category: Drugs

Specialty Drugs Mean Specialty Prices

If you have MS, you’ve probably used a specialty drug. My first was Avonex, which I began to use about 1998. Several others followed. There’s no formal definition of a specialty drug, but these therapies have several things in common. First, they’re expensive. According to the vice president in charge of specialty drugs at CVS Pharmacy, the average monthly cost is $3,000. A CVS website article says that’s about 10…Continue Reading

Have You Been Switched from Generic to Brand Name?

  Insurance companies want people to use generics, rather than the more expensive brand-name drugs, right? Maybe not. Because, at least in some cases, they’re doing just the opposite. Some patients are being forced to use brand-name drugs even when those drugs have generic equivalents. It happened to my wife last week. Not surprisingly, that means that some of us with MS could wind up having to dig deeper into…Continue Reading

Ocrevus, Hope and a Suicide Postponed

Ocrevus and PML

Several months ago, I wrote a column in Multiple Sclerosis News Today about Andrew Barclay. Barclay died in an assisted suicide in December. He’d had multiple sclerosis for many years. Colin Campbell is a 56-year-old MS patient who lives in Inverness, Scotland. He also wanted to die. In fact, he was scheduled to end his own life, with help, on June 15 at a suicide clinic in Switzerland. But he…Continue Reading

My Lemtrada Journey: 6 month report

It’s been a little over six months since I completed Round 1 of my Lemtrada infusions, so it’s time again to ask myself, “How am I doing?” The answer: I’m not sure. For many years, my brain MRI has remained unchanged. I can’t remember the last time I had an exacerbation (something bad enough to require steroid treatments). It was, literally, in the last century. But my walking has slowly,…Continue Reading

Getting Help Paying for Your MS Drugs

With the recent approval of the multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus, I’ve again heard the plea “but how can I afford it?” Ocrevus carries a price tag of about $65,000 a year. That’s not high compared to some other MS drugs, but it can still mean a higher co-pay than some patients with insurance can afford. And it can appear to be totally unaffordable for those without coverage. Unless you know…Continue Reading

Pills, shots or infusions for your MS?

[This first appeared as my column on www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com] Oral multiple sclerosis meds appear, more and more, to be the first choice of patients who are just beginning to receive an MS treatment. A recent report by the independent marketing research firm Spherix Global Insights shows that oral disease-modifying therapies captured a significantly higher share of the market at the end of 2016 compared to 2015.  Tecfidera was at the top of the…Continue Reading

Starting Down the Lemtrada Road

[This is an updated version of my column that first appeared on www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com] The final drip of my first week of Lemtrada infusions will drop in about 30 minutes.  The headline is: It was a good week with no significant problems or discomfort.  I’ll be writing about this experience, in detail, in my next column.  But first, for those who aren’t yet up to speed on my journey, some background.…Continue Reading

A Letter to a Scared Young Woman

(This first appeared as my column on www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com) Dear Lauren Parrott, I know you’re scared.  The fears that you shared in your video blog ring true to any of us who have faced the unknowns of a new MS medicine. I’ve been there. I’ve gone through three major multiple sclerosis drugs over the 35+ years that I’ve been fighting MS.  I was a subject in the clinical trial of Avonex;…Continue Reading

Lemtrada: Is this MS Drug HSCT “Lite?”

(This is an updated version of my column that appeared earlier this month on www.multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com) My neurologist calls Lemtrada “HSCT lite.”  She says that not only is the drug able to reduce exacerbations and limit the overall progression of Multiple Sclerosis, it’s actually reversed some symptoms in some of her patients.   I guess I’m going to find out if she’s right about Lemtrada because I’m getting ready to start…Continue Reading