@oskar , as far as I'm aware, it's a step backwards in efficacy.

@oskar

As stumbler said it’s a step back for a less effective treatment. 

If this was say cancer you wouldn’t be settling for the 5th and 9th most effective treatments to deal with it, you’d want only the best they had. For MS at this time that would be something like Lemtrada which can halt it in its tracks not something lower in efficacy that might only slow it a little. 

You have a friend request, if you need a Lemmie to talk to I’m happy to share contact details xx

If you’ve got some reading time the last 3 years post treatment and my remission are documented here :

www.tracyslemtradajourney.co.uk

xx

Hi @oskar  I just saw my neurologist this past week, and I will be choosing my first treatment soon, so the doctor drew me a little pyramid of treatments. She put tecfidera and aubagio  on the same level for efficacy, both possible first line treatments here in France, along with the interferons and copaxone. I can't answer your question obviously, as I've not yet taken any treatment, but perhaps it depends on the aggressivity of your ms,  the number of relapses you've had,  the visible lesions on MRI, or the country, which seems weird. 
 

@tracyd I mentioned you to the doctor (not by name of course!) and told her about your success with Lemtrada. She told me Lemtrada is not prescribed at all in France. 

@embrioderess
My French isn’t good enough to go and trawl through the French online resources and confirm it deny that it’s approved there now (although I seem to remember we had a French member Eric who never raised that it wasn’t available - that was 3 years ago)
I would double check that before giving up on it though xx

@embroideress - I was on Dacluzimab as a trial drug. It's no longer available in UK due to adverse effects.

@tracyd  perhaps she meant she wouldn't prescribe it for me ;-) 

It is only for aggressive and rapidly evolving RRMS, so I guess she thinks I should begin with first-line treatments.

I found the text of the Haute Autorité de Santé in English (!)

https://webzine.has-sante.fr/portail/upload/docs/application/pdf/2016-08/lemtrada_summary_ct14394.pdf

@oskar  Did you have negative side effects from Dacluzimab? I suppose it's not worth getting liver disease and whatever else it causes. Let us know how you get on with changing treatments! 

Hi Oskar - you should ask your nurse/consultant to go through all of your options with you.  You probably have the choice of Lemtrada, Cladribine, Tecfidera, Aubagio, maybe Gilenya, maybe Tysabri...

You can ask them to help you decide on the risk/benefit of the various drugs and they should be able to tell you what you are eligible for in terms of NICE approval.

@ embroideress - initially I got terrible eczema on my shoulders but dermaologist told me it wasn't a drug reaction. I used to have to have a LFT every month before jabbing myself and bizarrely, given my love of booze, it NEVER came back irregular.
I think what decided its availability was the cases of meningitis which appeared later.

@ sciencegeek - I saw MS nurse last last month and it was she who suggested Aubagio and I know it's only 30% effective but I haven't had a wobble in 9 years, prior to which I had a wobble annually, culminating in the big one in 2009 =diagnosis and Daclizumab.
I'm happy to take the 30% chance - hey, I'm even going to put £5 bet on NUFC winning the Premier League ;)

I'm fed up with Tecfidera, 2 tablets a day, so I asked MS nurse about 'once a day' tablets,
She suggested looking up Aubagio.
Any comments appreciated, thanks,
Oskar