A reporter recently went to interview John-Marc Parson, a man with multiple sclerosis who has told his story for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Here you can find a video of a long interview with him that was done for the MS Society. I won't tell too much, just watch it for yourself:

Video Interview with John-Marc Parsons

Pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS) is defined as being diagnosed with MS before the age at 18. A new look at the data on the relapse rate of pediatric MS patients compared to adult MS patients shows that the pediatric MS patients have about 3 times the relapse rate of adults.

The average annual relapse rate for people who developed relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis as adults is 0.4 relapses per year. For people who developed MS before the age of 18, that rate is 1.13 relapses per year (even after they become adults).

Only 11% of people with relapsing-remitted MS are diagnosed as before the age of 18. It is not clear why the relapse rate is higher in pediatric cases. It could be that people who are diagnosed earlier have a more aggressive form of MS than those whose symptoms do not show until later in life.

The study was led by Mark Gorman of Brigham and Women's Hospital and was published in the January 2009 edition of the Annuals of Neurology.

Must Read: MS Relapses

There is potential good news coming for users of Avonex, Betaseron and Rebif. Those interferon treatments need to be injected and, let's just go ahead and say it, nobody likes injections. Nerveda and Aegis Therapeutics announced that they have had successful preclinical results on a nasal spray to deliver the interferons.

The reason you simply can't have an pill for interferon treatment in multiple sclerosis is that this line of treatment relies on delicate protein molecules. Basically, protein molecules like to cling and bond to each other. If they do that too much, the immune system doens't react to them and produce the antibodies needed to reduce relaspe rates. A pill would be too unstable and too "bonded together" for it to be an effective interferon treatment.

A nasal spray would be a big deal. It's an effective (and much less painful) wau to deliver interferon treatment. Expect to see clinical trails starting soon.

Betaseron and Rebif have a combined annual sales of more than 4 billion dollars worldwide. Bringing all those people a new way to effectively take their medicine would be a huge benefit.

Must Read: More on my takes on Rebif, Betaseron and Avonex

JP Morgan downgraded the rating of the stock of Biogen Idec because it of concerns that the company could face serious challenges in 2009 with Tysabri, a multiple sclerosis drug. Much of the downgrade was a result of recent negative news over Tysabri being linked to cases of PML, a serious brain infection. JP Morgan figured that, because of the concerns, the growth in Tysabri users is likely to remain static in 2009. As a result, Biogen Idec's stock fell 2.2% on the day of the announcement (January 5th), but has shown some recovery since then.

This just goes to show how oddly-mixed business and treatment are. Decisions about drug development are made under pressure from investors. When business prospects look good, companies have funds to develop new treatments. When things look less good, investors flee. Should business and treatment be this closely tied? Are there other options for the development of drugs? Put your thoughts in the comments.

Further reading about Tysabri and PML:

• Is Tysabri Right for You?
• What is PML?