Does that statement mean that by taking Tysabri for your MS, there is a guarantee that it will help you?

Another "perceived" guarantee?

I totally agree with you in that most MS patients will make their own choice based on what they know about Tysabri or any medication. I can't imagine, though, that ANY reader here or any MS forum would like to see Tysabri fail miserably because that would only create far more suffering for the patient. And MS patients suffer enough on any one given day.

I somehow think the NASA engineers had a better idea and handle on the risks than what the docs have on Tysabri at the moment.

Harry

Don't confuse the Apollo program with the Space Shuttle. The Apollo outcome was the parallel I was drawing, and that was indeed a success.

Very little in this life is guaranteed; that doesn't mean we live underground or deny ourselves the opportunity to be well. And we both know that there certainly are those who would like to see Tysabri fail.

Certainly not anyone in this forum would rejoice in the failure of Tysabri. I hope it turns out to be a big success for us. But at this time, I still recommend caution.

I cannot imagine anyone would want Tysabri to fail, except investors who are doing stock options, and investors in competitive companies perhaps.

And the reverse is true too. That investors, and Directors of a Pharma will downplay (or even hide) information that detracts from the perception of their drug as Safe and as Effective.

Investors yes; Directors...not really. They do not hide information about drug safety - what would be the point? If a drug is unsafe, people will find out eventually, and failure to disclose adverse effects is very actionable.

In a fair world, one would think so. But look at what happened to me. Biogen was very sneaky about how they handled the recalled Avonex. And I became deathly ill from it. And attorneys told me it is not "actionable". They said it is so costly to sue a Pharma that I would have to have died or been permanently extremely damaged (like the PML patients). My damaged lungs and heart were not bad enough to warrant an atty spending money to sue Biogen. And Biogen was dishonorable and refused to pay me -- all I asked for was my lost wages. They refused.

Go back and see how Biogen handled the recall. It was a beautiful example of a company (not investors, the heads of the company) hiding information and downplaying it.

Sorry to hear about your troubles...but I don't think your experience proves that companies will withhold information about serious side-effects, especially since the trial results are disclosed in public. What CAN happen is that insiders sell their shares prior to the bad news coming out (paging Martha Stewart and Imclone!).

BTW...the attorneys don't spend the money suing Big Pharma - you do...and I think they were telling you that YOU couldn't afford the fees. Class Action suits are what usually get filed against these companies, but yours was apparently an isolated case, correct?

Anyway, best of luck.

Didn't some of the big wigs at Biogen dump some Tysabri stock, before they announced the PML deaths and stopped the sale of TY? They played it down as business as usual, but it didn't smell right.

That is classic insider trading, Sally, and it's illegal. That's why Martha Stewart went to jail. If they're not in jail, then it didn't happen. Sounds like a message board legend.

Insiders have to register in advance to sell shares...they can't just decide on the fly to dump shares today before tomorrow's bad news comes out. I think it's 30 days.