Hello everyone! Today is Thursday, April 22, and it’s a nice weather day in NC. The afternoons have been in the low 70’s the last few days, but the mornings are still in the 40’s… that’s quite a contrast! I enjoy having my morning tea on the back porch when the mornings warm… still waiting for that!
Do I need to talk about Corona Virus? Yes, I called it a Virus even though much of what I see on TV says it’s a “Disease”. I may have to look into that! I thought diseases were chronic while a virus kind of just… well… comes and goes? It does appear that social distancing and other measures have take the Edge Off of Corona, which is great news! Some of my neighboring States are relaxing of the restrictions and trying to get people back to work, which certainly needs to happen! From a timing perspective, I guess the next few weeks will tell us whether opening things back up was premature. Sometimes you just can’t win… either way. 🙁
Anyway…. When I last left off, I was on the topic of switching from one prescription (Copaxone – Three times weekly self administered shot) to a new one (Ocrevus – Twice a year infusion). What about Ocrevus? Ocrevus is extremely popular in the MS World these days! From what I understand, Ocrevus was an “Old drug” that was found to work on slowing MS Progression! That’s great! So, the pharmaceutical company that owned the drug made some minor modifications to it, rebranded/renamed it to Ocrevus and… just like that… a new treatment for MS.
The process of finding new and exciting ways existing prescriptions can be remarketed is, from what I understand, a fairly common practice for Big Pharma. Take a drug that cost millions or billions to create and maximize profits until the patent/copyright (Not sure which is proper) runs out and other companies start producing generic versions. Generics are good for patients and insurance companies (Lower costs etc), but maybe not so good for the company that developed it! I know that my prescription for Ocrevus is, roughly, $80,000 a year… so that’s a lot of profit for as long as the copyright is held by one company! Good for them and THANK GOD for insurance! LOL
So, it’s all about Ocrevus… at least for now! Ocrevus has to be administered via an infusion at the hospital and it takes FOREVER! Im joking of course, but when you start Ocrevus they do two half-doses first… to limit side affects and potential serious reactions. My first two half-doses took about 5 or six hours to complete, so it’s a long day sitting in the infusion center at the local hospital. Full infusions can take as long as 10 hours, so something to look forward to this summer!
Honestly, while I found the infusion to be a bit boring, it was a much different experience for my wife.
And… that’s where I’ll leave off for now! Maybe I can talk my wife into writing about the infusion from her perspective? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
Stay safe and healthy!
