Onercept Working and More Convenient than Remicade
from Scott M.

Hi Ed, here is a quick update on my Onercept treatment in Newfoundland .

I've been injecting myself subcutaneously (under the skin) with Onercept — Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays — for over 2 months now.  According to the nurse on my regular visits, out of the 25 people in the study, me and another guy are not experiencing any site reactions to the needles. Strange, but anyway, she said I have the best clearing in the study so far.

To give you an idea, at the beginning of the study, I was 45%-55% covered with red, painful lesions.  Now they’ve disappeared completely, except for minor scalp dryness and a the odd white dry spots on my knees. The discolouration is mostly gone, but hasn’t totally disappeared like it did with my Remicade treatment. My skin is totally smooth and flat, feels like regular skin.

I didn't have any side effects except for some swelling and numbness in my fingers for about a week when in the Newfoundland cold (-5 C to -25 C) while on this drug, and I was tested for Lupus just to make sure — the tests came back perfectly fine so my derm and I wrote it off as my body adjusting to the cold. Never happened again.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this drug over Remicade, mainly because of the three self-injections per week as opposed to hanging out at the derm's office and missing work to be infused via IV for a few hours.

I noticed Onercept is a bit slower to take effect than Remicade, but that's a small price to pay considering the convenience of do-it-yourself-needles.  NO MORE OIL BATHS and  no more TWICE A DAY VACUUMING! Good to be clear once again. I'll keep you updated, especially when I finally stop taking the drug. -Scott M.

*****

Ed’s Response:  Great job, Scott!  If a biologic can help you Newfoundlings (sorry, an indiscretion, won’t be repeated) it’s got to be tough and therefore quite promising for the rest of us.  (Click here for an article about Onercept trials.  Also search on ‘Onercept’ at the National Psoriasis Foundation site for more  information including Onercept trials in the U.S. )

Now, hopefully, you won’t be left high and dry after the trial.  I don’t know if Serono is considering Onercept the way Genetech considers Raptiva — that is, as a drug you take forever because P is a chronic disease — but if they are they may make available a program to migrate you from a Phase III study subject to a long-term use study subject.  Something to check into, anyway.

Keep us informed.  -Ed

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