3.11.2011

A Cure At Last (?)

My friend Gene tweeted this news from The Washington Post about Benlysta, the first drug to treat lupus in 56 years that was approved by the U.S. FDA. It was created by Biotech drugmaker Human Genome Sciences Inc. (took them 15 years).

To early to celebrate though, the article says that " It only worked in 35 percent of North American patients tested and was not effective for patients with the deadliest form of the disease". However, hooray for my case since "FDA approved the drug for systemic lupus erythematosus, the most common form of the disease".

Then again, I think there's still a long journey for a real cure. The fact about clinical trials working for select profiles only shows there's still a lot of things still need to be understood about this condition. I hope to still be alive and well when that happens, and there is hope because as the article said, "Ten-year survival for patients diagnosed with the illness is more than 85 percent, according to the National Institutes of Health." Counting this year, I'm already on my 18th year. Waaaaaaaaay beyond the 10 year limit.

To read more about the article, you can check out The Washington Post

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