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Member since '10
Sam Maddox
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Digging the blog squad, hoping for blogger reaction. read, react, riposte
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Sam Maddox
created a blog entry
Dog Disc Paralysis Study; People Next?
Short legged dogs with long torsos are congenitally prone to spinal disc ruptures, often leading to paralysis. These intervertebral disc traumas are usually a combination of compressive and concussive...
Sam Maddox
commented on
Stem Cell Scams: 60 Minutes Revisits
If you missed here's the link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7394380n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox
Sam Maddox
created a blog entry
Stem Cell Scams: 60 Minutes Revisits
Stem cell fraud is alive and well. Tune in Sunday, January 8 -- CBS 60 Minutes will take on the subject again.
From CBS:
Stem Cell Fraud - Stem cells still have not proven to be the panacea man...
Sam Maddox
commented on
The Case for Ch'ase (And Why the Wait)
Robert, I see you have the smoke. Got the gun too? Make a case for a broken system, I'll go along with that. Not sure the committee report is sufficiently damning to allege corruption. As for the company, Acorda could not have paid attention to the ch'ase patent two or three years ago. They were more worried about the light bill. Now, they can maximize shareholder interests by investing in R&D, etc. Let's not make this an issue of faith. It's science and commerce. Data and dollars. Let's see what they do with the opportunity.
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Sam Maddox
commented on
New Window into the Spinal Cord
Yes, Matt, this is an in vivo technique -- living animals. I confess I have not read the entire paper but from the abstract they say they followed some axon growth over the course of a year. If you click on the above Nature Medicine link, scroll down the page. There are video clips attached that show how the living nerves are mapped and modeled. It's pretty cool.
Sam Maddox
commented on
Paraplegic Stands; Recovery Unprecedented
ZuZu, if you send me the contact info c/o smaddox@christopherreeve.org I will pass along to Rob.
Sam Maddox
created a blog entry
New Window into the Spinal Cord
This research story really opens a brand new window on how the spinal cord works, or doesn’t work. A team led by Frank Bradke at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology has found a way to see ...
Sam Maddox
commented on
The Case for Ch'ase (And Why the Wait)
The url in Robert's post above picked up some extra punctuation. Try this:
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/nda/2010/022250s000_CrossR.pdf
Sam Maddox
commented on
The Case for Ch'ase (And Why the Wait)
Robert, thanks. I read the report. The was a lot of discussion about safety and about placebo and whether or not Ampyra was clinically relevant in three trials of hundreds of patients with MS. You are correct, the drug's effect was not huge compared to placebo but .... the committee report says "substantial evidence of effectiveness has been provided" and the vote was 12 to 1 in favor of granting Acorda a New Drug Application (NDA). Convincingly enough for that committee, and for the FDA.
The point of this discussion is to note the promise of ch'ase. Acorda, because of Ampyra, now has the manpower and resources to pursue its patent license for the enzyme.
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Sam Maddox
commented on
The Case for Ch'ase (And Why the Wait)
Robert: 1. Watch the quote marks. Andy Blight didn't make the comment that ch'ase is sometimes injected in animal models or that there is concern about needles. I did. 2. Yes, I believe Wise Young is using an injection to deliver the cord blood cells. I'm sure his group very careful to avoid bleeding, which is one of the big issues when you poke a needle through the protective membranes of the cord into the nerve tissue itself. 3. Yes, Ampyra is dangerous in excess; there are warnings galore. 4. Ampyra was approved for walking speed in multiple sclerosis. 5. The data in clinical trials was stronger than placebo, convincingly enough.
In the original SCI trial, testing Ampyra (then called fampridine) for spasticity, the placebo group did screw up the results. 6. I have followed Acorda since it started almost 20 years ago and I see no reason to mistrust the Ampyra story, and certainly no reason to doubt Andy Blight.
As for the second set of comments, Ampyra is not cheap but much less expensive than the ABC drugs for MS. There might be physicians prescribing the drug 'off label' for SCI -- it won't work for everyone but I know people who take it and benefit. It is for sure a waste of money if it doesn't work. How it got approved ... more or less by the biotech book: They raised the money and got the data, they brought it to the regulatory folks, FDA said OK. Do I detect a subtext in your comments -- that drug companies are more likely to invest in products with long prescribing lifetimes (like Lipitor) vs. single treatments (presumably like ch'ase might be)? That's a business vs. altruism discussion for another blog. For now, let's keep an eye on ch'ase and hope thing move along forthwith.
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Sam Maddox
created a blog entry
The Case for Ch'ase
One of the most compelling spinal cord research stories of the past year centers on an enzyme called chondroitinase. Its primary target is chronic SCI – that in itself is big news since most SCI...
Sam Maddox
created a blog entry
Regeneration Induced; Axons Survive Long-Term
A couple of interesting research papers were published in the medical literature this week.
The first is from the lab of Zhigang He, of Harvard: “Sustained Axon Regeneration Induced by Co-del...
Sam Maddox
created a blog entry
Combo Results: Greater than Sum of Parts
Last month we looked at a three-way combination treatment for spinal cord injury that formed a sort of detour around the injury site.
The group that performed that set of experiments has just publi...
Sam Maddox
commented on
Combo Approach Creates Functional Detour
Paolo, I know that Charles Tator in Toronto is doing an experiment just as you describe. Hypothesis: functional recovery after chronic spinal cord injury can be achieved by the combined action of chitosan guidance channels with scaffolds containing neural stem/progenitor cells and chondroitinase-ABC. Two-year grant from Reeve.
Sam Maddox
commented on
Geron blazes trail to nowhere
From Reeve Foundation: zero dollars. Scarlett is well paid, you can count on that. Adult stem cells at cited success rate, show me the data, Michael, I don't buy it for a second. Geron was held out as an example of a brave pioneer battling the blight of paralysis but in the end it's obvious, they are in it for the profit. That's the way corporate survival works.
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Madwire looks at clinical medicine and biomedical research related to paralysis and mobility. And whatever else strikes the dogz' fancy.
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