Curious - I hadn’t heard of IL-17 and it’s role as treatment for GCA. I am currently on Actemra which is an IL-6 inhibitor.
Luckily, it seems like there is an increased interest in finding solutions for GCA/PMR.
Here is an article I recently came across.
Interesting article. Thanks for sharing.
As for increased interest in finding solutions for GCA/PMR I cynically have to point out that discovering new drugs they can charge a literal fortune for certainly is an incentive....
I totally agree about the monetary incentive, Heron. I currently receive Actemra infusions free through Medicare, but if I were to self inject (which I’d prefer), I’d have to pay $3,500 each out of pocket. Big Pharma!!! There ought to be a law-fat chance.
Bit of a scandal here in Canada at the moment as it appears B** Ph***a has been sabotaging efforts to bring in universal medicare. We have second highest pharmaceutical prices in the world, second to - guess who? - the US! They have apparently threatened to withhold releasing new drugs to the Canadian market. Plus the committee working on this was headed by someone who stepped directly into the role from the pharma industry. Sigh, Several people have resigned, so I don't know what will happen now. Universal pharmacare has been a longstanding political promise.
As mentioned in the article - it's a bit questionable since the pred taper they used would never be used in clinical practice and, having participated in a discussion about study design, I'm pretty sure NICE in the UK would be sceptical too.
Even the clinical trials for Actemra used a fairly fast taper - and yet there are patients on the forum who are on Actemra who have needed a far slower taper. They are getting to lower doses of pred - but taking a great deal longer. Of course, real life patients are tending to be longstanding relapsing patients rather than steroid-naive newly diagnosed patients and maybe the primary problem becomes the adrenal function hurdle.
GCA?
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