Efgartigimod

[Anthonyh7]

Another interesting development in potential new treatment options for people living with ITP -

globenewswire.com/news-rele...

[NickyD]

What is this?

[Anthonyh7 in reply to NickyD]

A newish development. It is actually being looked at to treat a number of autoimmune conditions, including ITP.

I will ask Professor Newland about it at the next ITP Support Association local support group on April 8th.

The following link is from Argenx the company developing it at the moment - argenx.com/pipeline/efgarti...

I also spotted the following article with comments from Professor Newland on Facebook - facebook.com/photo?fbid=410...

Will keep everyone advised

Best wishes

Anthony

[NickyD in reply to Anthonyh7]

Thank you Anthony for keeping us updated. Much appreciated. Nicky

[Anthonyh7 in reply to Anthonyh7]

Nicky, if you wish to check out a bit more on these type of drugs please do have a look at the following video presented by Dr Drew Provan.

These type of drugs are designed to block a substance in our systems called FcRn which is responsible for recycling antibodies back into our systems once they have been used.

The idea behind the drug is that they would block these antibodies from being sent back into our systems where they could then do more damage by destroying our platelets.

These antibodies are recycled by our bodies once they have been used as our systems are designed to be efficiently using existing used antibodies rather than producing new ones. But as in ITP if some of those antibodies are "BAD" then once recycled they will go on to be "BAD" again and continue destroying our platelets.

That's my understanding of it but Dr Provan explains it better than I ever could.

Anyway, the drug currently being trialled for this is called Rozanolixizumab and of course there is also the one now being mentioned in the article by Argenx.

It is thought that if approved, these drugs would be used as the next option after TPO - R agonisists have been tried but failed.

Interesting developments and cause for optimism as Dr Provan explains -

Here is the link - youtu.be/lcC329pd-fY(Not working as expected?)

[bruiser2017 in reply to Anthonyh7]

Very interesting for ITP, not to sure whether destroying anti bodies would be a good thing in the current pandemic.

[itplassne]

Potentially very interesting: thank-you for keeping us abreast of developments 🙂

[Raven06]

Thank you Anthony!

[Stateofdesign]

There's a phase 3 trial being held here in the States. I'm not eligible until 6 months after my last Rituxan treatment, which will be mid-May. My hematologist has already started the process to get me signed up for the study. No other treatments have worked for me, except thankfully for IViG infusions. Fingers crossed this does the trick.

[Anthonyh7 in reply to Stateofdesign]

Thank you for sharing that information with us Stateofdesign.

Please do keep us up to date with any developments or news if you get any more information on this from the US.

I will be raising it with professor Adrian Newland at the next ITP Support Association online/Zoom meeting on April 8th at 7pm GMT here in the UK, so will post any news about it afterwards on here.

Take care & best wishes

Anthony

[Anthonyh7 in reply to Stateofdesign]

The following link may be interesting /helpful as it looks at all of the new & potential ITP treatments which are hopefully coming soon -

youtu.be/lcC329pd-fY(Not working as expected?)