Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group I'm Starting A New Oral Biologic!!

I agreed to participate in a clinical trial for a new biologic drug and they just called me and I will start my trials Tuesday. This new biologic is taken orally and the doctor told me that this is part 2 of the trials and they had wonderful results with part 1, the drug has a very high efficacy rate and less than 1% of the patients had any side-effects and the ones that showed up were very mild, the name of the drug is Apremilast, I'll keep yall posted on my results as I go along! I'm so excited and I pray it works, I think this is a very good time for me to do a clinical trial because I'm in a flare, it's a moderate one but it's been getting slowly worse for the last month or so.

Hi Michelle,

That's so exciting! Keep us posted and I hope it helps!

~Molly B (Seattle)

Thanks Molly and I will definitely keep yall posted! They actually do a lot of clinical trials here, I was in the Enbrel clinical trials too, I was a little nervous for that one, it was one of the first biologics and the risks seemed so high because I wasn't used to hearing about such serious side-effects like Leukemia, Cancer, Sepsis, etc. but everything worked out fine.

wow, an oral biologic
here's hoping two things:
1. it works well for you and
2. it may possibly be cheaper (for everyone) than the others out there now.
do you know anything about that last point?
even if its not cheaper, it would be more convenient.
do you know if its safer (in regards to the suppression of the immune system and those kinds of side effects)? or are the risks similar? is it a TNF inhibitor?

so many questions LOL

sue

Sue, I don't know the answer to the cost question but per the immune system suppression...Biologics are specifically designed to suppress targeted parts of the immune system. I will ask about the cost for you though and share any information that I'm allowed to.

hi michelle,

i got some of my questions answered here:

http://www.mskreport.com/articles.cfm?articleID=2811

satisfied my curiosity about what part(s) of the immune system it went after.
i should probably hunt first, then ask my questions.......
that's what i expect my students to do LOL

the cost question is probably something everyone would be interested in.

thanks,

sue

Hi Michelle,
That sounds great. I hope it works out well for you. I wonder that since it's oral, if it is less potent, but yet just as effective as other biologics. Very interesting trial.
Take care,
James.

Hi James and thanks, how are you feeling today, any improvement? I certainly hope so, you've had a rough go of it...I'm not sure if Apermilast has a different potency than the other biologics but I'm sure when I get the trial packet it'll have that info in it, when I did the clinical trials for Enbrel, we were supplied with a library of info on it...I am wondering if there's a different absorption rate since it's going through the stomach, that may somehow make it more effective and I know it targets IL23 (the Interleukin 23 gene) that we've been hearing about so much lately.

Hi Michelle,
Yes, I am doing much better today. Thanks for asking. I started to feel better as I was replying to everyone yesterday, and then I got caught up on my sleep which helped alot too. My stomach isn't feeling too bad either.

I was always wondering when they were going to start making these types of meds in a pill/oral form. I'm glad they are working on that now. It's something to look forward to.
take care,
James.

Is the trial for AS or Psoriasis? It looks like a IL 23 blocker WAY cool

My bet is that it works