I'm sorry Natalie (and others), I really didn’t mean to stir up conversation about this event here, in the “Information and Check-in” thread. I was only meaning to post the link to conversation that had occurred/may still occur.

In response to your point though, we have the same concern in Canada. It’s probably true of many countries with a “universal health care” system, as access to diagnostic testing is limited and prioritized. That might seem like all the more reason to NOT approve the drug in our countries to begin with . . . however, all that REALLY means is that they might not be able to catch (diagnostically) the PML in timely fashion to save people from death. It isn’t going to change the fact that people may get PML (in any of our countries) though.

As Cheryl pointed out in her last posting (on the above thread):

According to the conference call Biogen held, the neurologists in these two cases were extremely responsive to the patient changes, even though the testing showed a false negative reading. That attention to patient care is probably what saved these people (at least momentarily).

At the end of the day though . . . I guess it’s kinda’ like saying a person can’t be a “little bit pregnant”. By the time they suspect PML in a person, whether diagnostically or through due diligence . . . the person HAS PML already. The only thing they can do is try to mitigate the damage by initiating testing, and then trusting their gut even if the tests show a false negative.

Cherie