Panel Backs Drug for Treatment of Gehrig’s Disease
A scientific panel recommended Monday that the government approve the first drug to show any effectiveness against Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The scientists voted, 5 to 4, for the recommendation to the Food and Drug Administration after reviewing tests that suggested a slightly longer survival time for some patients--but no cure for the fatal neuromuscular disease.
The drug, riluzole, appears to help some people live an extra three months, and more than a dozen patients tearfully told the FDA panel that was vital.
“Will it cure me? No,” said Donald Simons, a retired Navy physicist who was diagnosed with the disease in January. “Will it make my life better? I don’t know, but I can hope.”
“I’m in a race against time,” a sobbing Stacey Henninger of Philadelphia told the panel.
There is no approved treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Victims’ life expectancy--just three to five years--has changed little since the disease killed New York Yankees’ first baseman Lou Gehrig in 1941.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
