 |
 |
Yes, there is much hope for future research with GDNF, but today the patients who took great personal risks to move the research ahead are suffering due to Amgen's refusal to reinstate their treatment. Many of the doctors involved in the trial believe the safety concerns stated by Amgen were not sufficient reason to stop the treatment. The lesions seen in test monkeys may have been due to receiving much larger doses than human patients received and may be due to Withdrawl of GDNF - not its administration. see: www.gdnf4parkinsons.org to read the GDNF trial participants stories and their doctor's rebuttal of Amgen's claims. The patients have already taken the greatest risk by undergoing experimental brain surgery. They benefited from GDNF - now they are deteriorating without treatment. Remember the scene in "Awakenings" when the patients ldopa treatment was ceased and they all returned to their beds in a frozen state? The drug companies and PD orgs are encouraging patients to volunteer for clinical trials -- they must also insist that volunteers are treated ethically and humanely. Amgen has not done so. These people could be anyone of us. PAN and PDF have issued press releases supporting the trial patients. They need our suppport too! Linda ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn