Time Magazine has reported that a drug derived from modified cobra venom
might
be tested at Canadian MS clinics as a treatment for MS in the future.
Immunokine has been tried in several patients with MS under non-placebo controlled conditions with initial encouraging results. The company that makes the drug, has applied to Health Canada to test it at several Canadian MS clinics.
The study of Immunokine was a Phase I trial. This is a short study in which both the people receiving the therapy and the study investigators know the participants are receiving active treatment. The primary outcome is to test for safety of the therapy.
The usual next step, would be be a Phase II trial in which participants are divided into goups. One group receives active treatment and one receives a placebo (non-active) treatment. Neither the participants nor the physicians who examine them know who is taking which treatment until the end of the study. This is called double-blind, placebo controlled study.
It seems that a double-blind trial was done by the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Toxicology, University of Massachusetts Medical School to determine the effectiveness of Immunokine on ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) patients. The study did not demonstrate any benefit from administration of modified snake venom to patients with ALS.
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