As Rick wrote -- Amgen should not be allowed to get away with this.Thank you to everyone who wrote to CEO Kevin Sharer and to their local media. More emails and letters are needed. The following press release is from a coalition on PD patients, GDNF trial participants and grassroots organizations:
Linda
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<!--Today's News--> Parkinson's Patient Advocates Call on Amgen to Move Forward With GDNF Clinical Trials LOUISVILLE, Ky., Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunday's CBS News program "60Minutes" profiled several courageous Parkinson's patients who volunteered forAmgen, Inc.'s clinical trials of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor(GDNF), a promising Parkinson's treatment for which the biotech giant companyholds the patent. Today, September 13, 2005, a coalition of grassrootsParkinson's patients and organizations published an open letter to AmgenPresident and CEO Kevin Sharer in a full-page ad in the Ventura County Star,where Amgen is headquartered, urging him to restart human trials of the growthfactor or license it to a company that will. Clinical trials have shown GDNF may be the first treatment to actuallyreverse the course of this terrible and presently incurable disease. Yet Amgenabruptly halted its own trials, refusing to allow trial participants orresearchers any co!
ntinued use of GDNF. Without GDNF, patients who hadrecovered their abilities to walk, garden, drive, eat, read, and work havereturned to their wheelchairs and walkers. "The '60 Minutes' segment casts doubt on Amgen's claims that GDNF isineffective and unsafe," said the group's spokesperson, Ann Wasson. "And newphysical evidence from the autopsy of an earlier trial participant proves thatGDNF can regenerate the dopamine-producing cells that Parkinson's patientsneed, and actually reverse the progress of the disease." "This is a milestone in Parkinson's research, a legitimate hope groundedin scientific data and observation," stated Ms. Wasson, 48, of Kentucky,diagnosed with Parkinson's at age 37. "There are more than one million people with Parkinson's across Americawho are slowly succumbing to this debilitating disease. The next five to tenyears will not only see the loss of thousands of Americans to completeimmobility and death, but will see even more Americans join!
the ranks of thosesuffering from Parkinson's disease without hope," s
aid Paula Wittekind, apatient advocate from Florida, who has established a web-site for neurologicaladvocacy, http://www.GrassrootsConnection.com. Clinical Trial Participant and coalition member Roger Thacker, who wasfeatured in the "60 Minutes" segment, said, "GDNF is a means of hope and helpfor those who suffer from this cruel disease. It could be the miracle neededto save a generation of patients." "Time is not a luxury that people with Parkinson's disease can afford,"said Rees Jenkins, a North Carolina patient advocate. "Delaying access topromising new treatments can mean the difference between life and death formany patients. Restart human clinical trials on GDNF. Do what is right." Contact: Ann Wasson [log in to unmask]
SOURCE Grassroots Coalition on GDNF
For more informstion and sample letters see:www.pdpipeline.org
<!--var SymRealOnLoad;var SymRealOnUnload;function SymOnUnload(){ window.open = SymWinOpen; if(SymRealOnUnload != null) SymRealOnUnload();}function SymOnLoad(){ if(SymRealOnLoad != null) SymRealOnLoad(); window.open = SymRealWinOpen; SymRealOnUnload = window.onunload; window.onunload = SymOnUnload;}SymRealOnLoad = window.onload;window.onload = SymOnLoad;//--> Rick McGirr <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Linda,
Thanks for the links. I couldn't help seeing my future as I watched
these poor people struggle to speak. I have written to about 20
friends asking them to check out the story, and I have also written to
and called Amgen, to express my disgust for them. We rarely hear of
such callous disregard for the needs of the sick and disabled,
perpetrated by a company who claims to be in the business of helping
people. Joseph Mengele or the Alabama syphillis studies are good
bedfellows for this American corporation.
I also wrote to CBS, thanking them and Lesley Stahl.
Let's turn up the heat on Amgen. They shouldn't be allowed to get
away with this.
Enjoy life!
Rick McGirr
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