Well Health Canada is a whole other kettle of fish but even Goliath can be beaten. It burns my AS when I hear idiotic policies like "you're on Remicade so therefore you don't qualify as suffering enough for us"?
What?
I sent an email to a recent Nobel Prize winner who did something or other nifty relating to AS - I totally forget who he is now but he was easy to track down. I asked him about the efficacy of biologics wearing off over time and he was so arrogant as to tell me that in his studies, no one ever reported biologics not working. He then suggested I get a new rheumy. This guy is supposed to be an expert...as much of an expert as you could hope to get I suppose and he isn't even aware that many of us have to try several biologics before we find something that works and that many of us report that the drugs lose efficacy after a few months or so.
Quite simply put, they are wrong. If the studies don't match our anecdotal evidence then there is a problem somewhere. Perhaps every one in here who dared to suggest biologics didn't cure them or that the effects just wore off are all liars? Unlikely. Perhaps certain drug combinations make them less effective? Possible but also unlikely. There would have to be a lot of drugs that could do this in order to explain the many people affected in this way. Another possibility is that the "experts" are fallible and missed something in their sample populations, perhaps a bias that was overlooked, maybe they just were unlucky?
I suspect the Nobel Prize winner is more interested in protecting his grant money than answering my questions. I know Remicade can be a wonderful drug for many people but after, I suppose a year and a half, I have seen no significant results. It isn't right to deny someone help because they are already on Remicade.
Chris
