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Innovative treatment for TSNMO. Neuromyelitis Optica spectrum disorder, or TSNMO, is a rare, chronic, and debilitating autoimmune disease of the Central Nervous System.
This manifests itself mainly by affecting the optic nerves and the spinal cord.
Disease it is most often found in women between the ages of 30 and 40 and affects up to 10,000 people in Europe and over 200,000 people globally. In Romania, there are no official statistics on the prevalence of this disease.
The first innovative treatment for TSNMO, available in Romania
Romanian patients suffering from this disease now have access to an innovative therapy for specific treatment. This therapy is the only reimbursed treatment in Romania for this disease, with subcutaneous administration every four weeks, which offers the possibility of carrying out the treatment in clinics close to the patients’ homes.
The treatment is developed by the company Roche and is available to patients in a fully compensated regime. The therapy is indicated for the treatment of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NSMD) in adult and adolescent patients over 12 years of age who are seropositive for anti-aquaporin 4 IgG antibodies (AQP4-IgG).
The exact cause of this disease remains unknown. Interleukin 6 (IL-6), a protein produced by many types of immune cells and which has the role of transmitting signals in our body, is considered a key factor in triggering this disease.
Because Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder is a progressive disease, with episodes of exacerbation (relapses), symptoms accumulate and worsen over time, so that 5 years after diagnosis, over half of patients will lose their sight or have to use a wheelchair.
Moreover, up to 30% of patients with this disease are misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis, due to the similar early manifestations of the two diseases.
“Until recently, patients suffering from Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder had no specific treatment for this disease. Now that we have access to treatment, it is especially important that people with this disease start treatment as soon as possible after the diagnosis or onset of the disease, in order to prevent the severity of relapses and to prevent the accumulation of neurological damage.
Medical education of patients regarding the symptoms of the disease can be an important help to diagnose this disease as quickly as possible”, said Dr. Romana Homorodean, neurology primary physician, Cluj-Napoca County Emergency Clinical Hospital.
About Roche
Founded in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland, as one of the first original drug companies on an industrial scale, Roche has become the world’s largest biotechnology company and a world leader in in vitro diagnostics. The company pursues excellence in science to discover and develop medicines and diagnostic tests to improve and save lives around the globe.
Roche has been named one of the most sustainable companies in the pharmaceutical industry by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the fifteenth consecutive year. This distinction also reflects our efforts to improve access to healthcare together with local partners in each country where we work.
Present on the Romanian market since the interwar period, Roche reopens its local representative office in 1992, following that in 2005, the Roche group established the commercial company SC Roche România SRL, which took over the activity of the representative office in Bucharest. Roche offers products and services that cover the entire spectrum of health care, from prevention, treatment to post-treatment monitoring, in major therapeutic areas where there are still unmet medical needs.
Through Roche Romania, both divisions of the Roche Group – the pharmaceutical division and the diagnostics division – are present on the market in our country, offering highly specialized products and services.
Source: www.doctorulzilei.ro
