Newly approved MS drug to offer relief to children

A new wonder drug to treat children with multiple sclerosis has been approved in Australia, following a global study proving its positive effects in reducing relapses with less side effects.

A wonder drug to treat children with multiple sclerosis has been approved for use in Australia.

Up to 10 per cent of MS sufferers are young people but until now they have had to use adult drugs for treatment often leaving them with uncomfortable side effects.

However, the substance fingolimod has been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration for use on younger patients, following a global study proving its positive effects in reducing relapses with less side effects.

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Paediatric Neurologist Associate Professor Andrew Kornberg said the approval of Gilenya was “fabulous” as it has shown “benefits in comparison to the adult drugs we have used in the past.”

“Previously, all we could say is ‘in some adult’s bodies a drug seems to have worked’. But children are not just small adults,” he said.

“This is proven to be more effective and safer than other treatments.”

Seventeen-year-old Katelyn Papakostas is among the number of rare cases in Australia where a child has been diagnosed with the debilitating condition.

Teenage MS sufferer Katelyn Papakostas

“I’d had symptoms for several years but I didn’t know what it was at the time,” she said.

“Then one night I woke up with shooting pain down my legs and thought this isn’t normal.”

It took doctors 8 months to diagnose her condition before she started on medication in October last year.

Katelyn welcomed the news of the new drug being approved saying “anything that is helpful is great” for young people living with the disease.

Based in Wangaratta she “is the only kid in town” with the condition but she is working to raise awareness about the illness through fundraising organisation Kiss Goodbye to MS.

Prof Kornberg said he diagnoses between five to six children every year.

MS is a disease of the central nervous system but typically, young people have more frequent disease relapses causing an increased severity of symptoms.

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