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With reports of death, FDA warns Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients against pharmaceutical drug Tysabri

Campaign launched to rally Multiple Sclerosis patients in potential class action lawsuit against the manufacturer of pharmaceutical drugs Tysabri and Avonex.

Wilmington, North Carolina - Greg Jones & Associates, a North Carolina-based law firm, in association with www.lawyersandsettlements.com, launches a marketing campaign to increase awareness of the Multiple Sclerosis drug, Tysabri. Makers of Tysabri, Biogen Idec Inc. and Elan Pharmaceuticals Inc., have recently taken the drug off the market and sent out warnings to doctors.

In November 2004, Biogen Idec and Elan Corporation received approval from the FDA to market and distribute Tysabri (natalizumab). Only four months later, February 2005, the drug was quickly removed from the market after the FDA received several reports of severe illness and death in patients prescribed Tysabri and Avonex. In several cases, the patient or corpse was diagnosed with Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare brain infection that directly affects the central nervous system. Symptoms of PML are similar to a stroke: headaches, memory loss, speech and vision difficulties, limb weakness, and partial paralysis; the disease leads to coma then to death.
To date, approximately 3,000 patients have been involved in clinical trials or prescribed Tysabri for multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Biogen Idec and Elan Pharmaceuticals hope to redistribute the drug after extensive evaluations of Tysabri and the possible link to PML.

Biogen merged with IDEC Pharmaceuticals in 2003, creating the billion-dollar company, Biogen Idec, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Biogen Idec also has another MS drug in the news: the bread-winning drug, Avonex, the most widely prescribed Multiple Sclerosis drug in the world with revenues of $1.4 billion in 2004 has recently been linked to increased risk of liver damage and liver failure.

Greg Jones & Associates is urging patients that have had adverse side effects with the prescription drugs Tysabri or Avonex, to have their case reviewed at www.lawyersandsettlements.com; each case will be evaluated by a lawyer at no charge.

For more details about this product recall and potential class action lawsuit, visit http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/lawsuit/tysabri.html

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