Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study: Experimental Medications Slow ALS
NBC News: New Treatment May Help Slow Progression Of ALS, Research Shows
An experimental medication may slow the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, researchers reported Wednesday. The research was supported in part by donations from the Ice Bucket Challenge, the social media sensation that raised more than $200 million worldwide. The drug is not a cure, but it may help slow the inexorable disability caused by ALS, which rapidly destroys the nerve cells that control the muscles that allow us to move, speak, eat and even breathe. (Carroll, 9/2)
NPR: Steep Decline Of ALS Patients Slowed Via A New Drug Combo
A combination of two experimental drugs appears to slow the decline of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an illness often known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. A six-month study of 137 patients with a fast-progressing form of the disease found that those who got daily doses of a two-drug combination called AMX0035 scored several points higher on a standard measure of function, a team reports in the Sept. 3 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. (Hamilton, 9/2)
The New York Times: New Treatment For Lou Gehrig's Disease Shows Promise
Seven years ago, Joshua Cohen, then a junior at Brown University majoring in biomedical engineering, was captivated by the question of why people develop brain disorders. “How does a neuron die?” he wondered. After poring over scientific studies, he sketched out his ideas for a way to treat them. “I was sitting in my dorm room and I had kind of written out the research on these crazy-looking diagrams,” he recalled. (Belluck, 9/2)
The Wall Street Journal: ALS Drug Study Signals Progress Toward Treatment For Deadly Disease
Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, who took an experimental drug kept the ability to walk, breathe and do other functions about six weeks longer than subjects who took a placebo in a recent trial—the latest sign of progress in finding new treatments for the deadly disease. The motor functioning of ALS patients who got the Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. drug as part of the study declined more slowly than of subjects who didn’t get the drug, the researchers said, in a study published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine. (Rockoff, 9/2)
Stat: Experimental ALS Drug, Dreamed Up In A Dorm Room, Offers Patients Hope
An experimental drug for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, slowed the neurological decline of volunteers in a closely watched clinical trial, according to researchers, offering a glimmer of hope for a patient population that desperately needs new treatment options. Patients who took the medication — initially dreamed up over beers and obsessive internet searching in a Brown University dormitory — retained a higher level of certain motor functions than those given a placebo, according to the researchers’ study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Keshavan, 9/2)
