Tecfidera vs Fumaderm

[Caroline]

Hi and Welcome!

From the National Multiple Sclerosis Society webpage:

"Tecfidera® is an oral therapy contained in capsules taken two times per day. Tecfidera, formerly known as BG-12, is dimethyl fumarate, a formulation that was developed specifically for use by people with multiple sclerosis. A chemically related compound, called Fumaderm (dimethyl fumarate and fumaric acid esters), has been used at higher doses for decades in Germany to treat acute flare-ups of psoriasis."


So it looks like Fumaderm may be prescribed at higher doses than Tecfidera?  Hopefully the Tecfidera will work for both and your doctor will find the right dosage for you.

Happy to see you here  

Friends !!!!

Let take a step back.
Let us not step into the marketing stuff of pharma. What we are facing is marketing blablamab (the spelling checker just did an invention), things are being said that are already known for thirty years, there is no new invention it is just positioning and doing some research on different groups of MS sufferers.


Fumaderm, Tecfidera, Psorinovo, Bill's DMF, they are all the same !!!!!
The working substance is and stays DMF. Concerning the working there is no difference, if Fumaderm works for you, all of the others will work also and vice versa.

The real differences are small and are there because of the fact that pure DMF is difficult for your stomach and intestines.

• That is why Bill is always careful with eating and the moment of taking the dosage, but his is extremely cheap.
  
• Fumadem has additives to get it through the stomach without much problems. These additives limit the max dosage to 6x120mg. It has a careful build up scheme. Price range is close to psorinovo.
  
• Tecfidera is no specific "invention" they only say so but its just DMF. It is enteric coated  so goes first through the stomach and is created in such a way that it releases slowly in the intestines. Because of the slower release there is probably no limit to the dosage. Seems to have a quick build up scheme. It is positioned for MS, therefore very expensive.
  
• Psorinovo is the oldie, but in its oldness quite advanced, it is enteric coated slow release so passes the stomach and releases slowly. Therefore there is no upper limit in the dosage. It has a careful build up scheme.
  Price range is close to Fumaderm which is about 40x cheaper than the MS medication.
  

What we see from above is four approaches with all the same 70% chance of success. This also holds for jmcarlo.
There are  quite some pricing differences, that is obvious. But if the insurance pays and it works for you, then you probably will think "why not?".

We see another difference, that is the build up scheme. Tecfidera is much faster then the others.
Personally I am not standing behind that approach. It is shooting with a cannon on a mosquito.
The idea of a slow build up has a reason, this reason is that we have to stay checking the blood values, as DMF can in the beginning influence the lymphocyte count.
So a warning for jmcarlo, please have it kept a good eye on.
Also going slow means that you can better feel when it starts to work. It takes time.

Suggestive example for the last observation.
In the 30 year life of Psorinovo there was one case of PML, which is not due to the medication, but due to the lymphocite count. They did not follow the protocol, so the count fell too far down.
Even before Tecfidera hit the market they were bragging against the market that they didn't have PML cases compared to Psorinovo (this is all documented officially in medical publications). Now they are on the market for about a year I think, and they already have a PML case.
That points to only one thing as it cannot be the DMF, it must be the protocol that is not followed, and that is very well possible as the build up scheme is so fast.

What they are lacking is the experience of years that is behind Fumaderm and Psorinovo.

About also using Stelara. I should first wait. There is a reasonable chance it will not be necessary.