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Author Topic: interferon - any new 2007 studies or research any first hand experience  (Read 3610 times)

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Offline bimazek

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interferon

Are their any trials going on?  Anyone in one now?  Anyone have been taking this.  I know it was popular to clinical trial in 80s and 90s.  Please post your experience with trials and research if you know anything.

recently i spoke to a woman who runs one of the most amazing kitten rescue shelters from her home, she has a dozen hand made incubators and is saving kittens that even vets say do not have a chance to live, we talked and she mentioned that some of her cats have FIV, she even takes FIV, feline immunodeficiency virus positive cats, 9% cats have this virus which is similar to hiv, ok, everyone knows this i think by now,

i have know about this since 1981 when my PhD Vet friend told me about it.  we know that FIV is not exactly similar to hiv and the host cat immune system is different and it is not nearly as deadly in a cat.  But this woman said that they give interferon injections three times a week to treat FIV.  I said how can you afford to do that being a small cat shelter.  She said that the cost is only about $40 per month to give a cat 9 injections of interferon per months for life...

and here is the kicker... she said

i said what does that do

she said ... it stops the cat from getting ... it Cuts down on

tumors

upper resp. infections

infections

Hello isnt that what i have had the last 2 years since i am positive and i am still at 400 plus tcells

i know interferon can be nasty, i heard there are fevers, and doesnt work entirely perfectly with hiv in humans or we would all be on it but for a price of  $9000/mo paid to mr. insurance industry executive

is the insurance industry that is distroying the health care system? Should we be on this interferon?  Is the human version completely different than the cat version?

I have more questions than thoughts with this post.

I know hiv is not fiv, i know the immune systems are different.  Why is it only $40/mo?

Here are some recent 2007 articles on the subject.
 
 http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/EA524403-359D-4C10-9AC4-7B84ECEFAEC8.asp
 
 Levels of the antiviral factor type I interferon are dramatically reduced during primary HIV infection, but can be restored by early anti-HIV therapy, according to the results of a small test tube study presented in the 15th July edition of The Journal of Infectious Diseases. These results suggest that HIV treatment early in infection, or use of artificial interferon therapy, may help the body to keep HIV under control.
 
 In the first few weeks after HIV infection, the body attempts to attack the virus by producing antiviral factors as part of the ‘innate’ immune response. Immune cells called ‘plasmocytoid dendritic cells’ (PDCs) are responsible for the production of factors such as type I interferon, which co-ordinate the immune system’s attack on HIV.
 
Levels of type I interferon and PDCs are known to be reduced during long-term HIV infection, as the body loses the ability to keep HIV under control. However, few studies have examined innate immunity during the early stages of HIV infection, when a balance between the virus and the body’s anti-HIV defences is set up.   Pharmaceutical versions of type I interferon, known as interferon alfa, are available for use in the treatment of viral infections such as hepatitis C infection. The investigators of this study speculate that interferon alfa treatment may be beneficial in helping the body to maintain its anti-HIV activity during primary HIV infection.

“Defective interferon production during primary infection should perhaps be supplemented. It will be important to assess whether peginterferon alfa treatment, which has already given promising results in preliminary studies, helps to control viral replication during primary infection and whether it acts on PDC cell numbers and function,” they suggest.

 http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/102211851.html

http://www.thebody.com/content/art4808.html
The High Cost of Therapy

Schering-Plough not only launched ribavirin at a high price but they are packaging it together with their own brand of interferon which limits the choice of which interferon can be used in combination therapy. The brand name of ribavirin is Rebetol. The brand name of Schering's interferon alpha is Intron A. They are packaged together as a treatment for hepatitis C, called Rebetron.

Before Rebetron, the most common treatment for hepatitis C was 3 million IUs of interferon injected subcutaneously (under the skin), three-times weekly, for 24 weeks. At the average wholesale price, this treatment costs approximately $2,500. The approved Rebetron dose includes the same dosing scheme of interferon plus oral ribavirin 1,200 mg daily for those who weigh more than 75 kg, (165 lbs) or 1,000 mg daily for those 75 kg or less. The average wholesale price of 24 weeks of Rebetron treatment, depending on the individual's weight, ranges from approximately $7,800 to $8,600! Therefore, 24 weeks of ribavirin therapy has been priced at $5,300 (for 1,000 mg per day) to $6,100 (for 1,200 mg per day)!!

The PWA Health Group helps people import "Vilona", ribavirin manufactured by ICN pharmaceuticals, from Mexico under the FDA's Personal Import Regulations. Our price is $82 per box of 18, 400 mg tablets. Treatment for 24 weeks at 1,200 mg daily, costs approximately $2,300.

Schering's price is 265% greater than what's available through Mexico. That's quite a premium considering they simply conducted 24 to 48 week clinical trials in approximately 2,000 people. No wonder they recently renegotiated for exclusive worldwide rights to market oral ribavirin for hepatitis C. Analysts estimate that revenues from Rebetron will approach $1 billion in four years! Did anyone need another example of out-of-control drug prices? Well, here it is.

Received 29 December 2004 | Accepted 11 February 2005

Is imatinib a cost-effective treatment for newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia patients?

John Goldman

Correspondence NHLBI NIH, 10 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-1202, USA

Email goldmanj2@nhlbi.nih.gov

This article has no abstract so we have provided the first paragraph of the full text.

The delivery of health care gets annually more expensive, and national governments and other agencies responsible for paying are obliged to consider the cost-effectiveness of drugs already in use and of new drugs that become available. Surrogate markers (e.g. reduction of recognizable leukemia cells in the bone marrow) and short-term survival data suggest that the BCR–ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib mesylate, first used to treat patients with CML in 1998, is an important new agent and may indeed usher in a new era of effective targeted therapy for malignant disease in general. Until recently, allogeneic stem cell transplantation was the recommended therapy for all new patients under the age of 50 who had suitable stem cell donors; today, transplants are generally reserved for those who fail initial treatment with imatinib—maybe only 30% of patients in the first year of treatment. However, treating a patient for 1 year with imatinib at the standard dosage (400 mg/day) costs about UK£17,000 or US$30,000—not trivial sums.

Long-term therapy of HIV-associated Kaposi's sarcoma with ...
Five young male patients with HIV-associated Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) were treated with recomhinant. interferon % 2n (rIFN-a-2a) over a period of 2-2S years. ...
www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2133.1991.tb03283.x -

Offline Tim Horn

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Re: interferon - any new 2007 studies or research any first hand experience
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2007, 03:41:15 pm »
Bim:

Despite all of that research back in the 1980s and early 1990s, there really wasn't any evidence supporting the use of interferon-alfa as a treatment for HIV. In light of the documented side effects of systemic injections of interferon-alfa -- we're talking serious fatigue, depression, hair loss, and immune suppression -- and the moderate (at best) effects on CD4 counts, the risk-benefit ratio isn't favorable, especially with other, obviously more safe and effective options becoming available.

The drug simply hasn't shown to have a positive, lasting effect on CD4 counts, survival, or the HIV life cycle (either with or without modern-day antiretroviral drugs).

Interferon certainly has its place in the treatment of other diseases, including anal and cervical dysplasia, Kaposi's sarcoma, and hepatitis C and B in people with HIV. In studies exploring interferon -- in various forms -- for these diseases, the risk-benefit ratio has been much more favorable... although, as many folks who have been through systemic interferon treatment for chronic hepatitis V virus infection will certainly tell you, therapy isn't exactly a walk in the park. If it wasn't for the fact that interferon therapy (when combined with ribavirin) actually cures HCV in a large number of people who receive the drug -- sadly, response rates aren't as high in HIV/HCV-coinfected people -- it would have been shelved a long time ago.

Tim Horn
« Last Edit: September 26, 2007, 05:59:30 pm by Tim Horn »

Offline Ann

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Re: interferon - any new 2007 studies or research any first hand experience
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2007, 05:52:09 pm »
Interferon is the Devil's Own Brew.

~shudder~

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Offline milker

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Re: interferon - any new 2007 studies or research any first hand experience
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2007, 10:46:15 pm »
My mother took Interferon for her cancer. It's a terrible drug. If someone offers me this treatment I'll say thank you but i'd rather die by myself.

Milker.
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Offline frenchpat

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Re: interferon - any new 2007 studies or research any first hand experience
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2007, 03:23:04 am »
Since no one's mentioned it I'd like to point out that there is a sublingual formulation of interferon alpha dosed at 200 IU. This is a much lower dose than the injectable solution that indeed had severe side effects for the majority of patients. In my experience there are no side effects from this sublingual formulation.

hope this helps,

Pat
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