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Article: Inner conflict: the fight to regulate the immune system in MS.
- Article from:
- Inside MS
- Article date:
- August 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 National Multiple Sclerosis Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The FDA approval of Tysabri in 2004 and its withdrawal from the market three months later almost seemed like a cruel joke. As Ed Duggan, Maryland Chapter Board of Directors member, saw it: "Tysabri was the result of a rational, focused exploitation of a key new insight about the disease process in MS." There was a sense that researchers were gaining the upper hand.
And then, in early 2005, three people who had been given Tysabri developed PML, a rare but lethal disease seen in people whose immune systems have been suppressed. The promise of Tysabri's benefits was momentarily snatched away, and it became clear that the scientific establishment may not know as much ...