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And I have never seen anyone accused of being a Betaseron, Copaxone, Avonex, or Rebif "cheerleader," because let's face it... at best they're merely tolerable and might help slow progression down a little, and at worst they're fraught with miserable side effects, and don't slow down progression at all.
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The history of the CRAB drugs' development is a sad story in the treatment of MS patients.
If one were to look how first Betaseron, then Avonex, Copaxone and to a lesser extent Rebif, were tested and approved for MS, it is yet another classical story of how big pharma pushed these treatments into hugely revenue producing medications.
But this is what happens when there was absolutely nothing to treat MS prior to these drugs showing up. Stats that were manipulated to show far better results than actually happened while the severe side effects were constantly minimized.
It is not surprising at all that Tysabri has been embraced by many of those who use it because for the most part, the patient doesn't have to go through the bad side effects that many of you know all too well.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Tysabri when the oral medications hit the market. And this will likely happen in the next couple of years.
Harry