There is a new year in this one. Barack Obama is still president, nobody knows what an NFT is, and suddenly your social feeds are filled with videos of people dunking buckets of ice on their friends and family in order to raise money for charity.
The "Ice Bucket Challenge" videos, in which people said they would be donating money to a medical nonprofit and nominated others to take the challenge next, raised enough funding for that they helped create a new treatment for Lou.
According to the statement from the association, since the viral sensation, which saw David Lynch nominating Russian President Vladimir Putin, it has raised over $2 million.
The FDA just approved a drug called Relyvrio for consumer use ahead of the completion of stage 3 trials, which was put into researching and developing a drug called AMX0035.
Motor function is the main cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a disease in which brain and spine cells are slowly dying. Amylyx Pharmaceuticals says that Relyvrio slows the loss of physical function for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It isn't a cure but its best-case scenario is better than the next-to-nothing treatment options available to people living with the disease.
"This is a victory for the entireALS community, which came together to advocate for early approval of AMX0035," the statement said. The new treatment is a step in the right direction in the fight against the disease.
While this is huge news for sufferers of the disease, there are critics who think the approval of the drug took too long.
The drug was approved by the FDA after a single study with less than 200 patients. The typical FDA drug approval process requires either two smaller independent studies showing the same results or a larger study with many more patients.
David Rind is the chief medical officer of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review. There is a general concern that the trial is flawed.
It's expected to only prolong the lives of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis by about six months, according to the manufacturer.
It was important for the FDA to approve Relyvrio so that it could be out quickly, rather than waiting until the end of the study in four years.
"This level of uncertainty is acceptable in this instance, given the serious and life threatening nature of the disease and the substantial unmet need," the agency wrote in a benefits-risk assessment.
With the approval of AMXo035, there's a lot of unprecedented stuff going on, and only time will tell if it earns its hype.
If nothing else, it gives patients suffering from one of the most brutal diseases a small amount of hope, and the comfort of knowing that millions of people care enough about them to give money and dump ice on their heads.
The new Alzheimer's drug appears to work to some degree.
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