Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis “is a neurodegenerative disease that has around 6 thousand patients in Italy with 2 thousand” new diagnoses “every year. It is a disease that affects the motor cortex and spinal cord, the motor neuron cells, and involves the loss of function of the entire organism, both at the limb level and at the central bulbar level, with respiratory and swallowing complications. . It is intuitive that the disease has a very important impact on the patient, but above all on the entire family and the caregiver who is generally the partner. Thus Vincenzo Silani, director of the Neuroscience department of the Irccs Italian Auxological Institute of Milan, comments to Adnkronos on the availability, in Italy, of the first orodispersible formulation of riluzole. The new Zambon treatment consists of a thin film to be dissolved over the tongue without water and without the need for muscular effort on the part of the patient who is thus able to ensure the intake of the precise dose of the active ingredient.
The therapeutic armamentarium available today for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is “very limited – adds Silani – This orodispersible formulation is, in my opinion, a very important step in the therapy of this disease. Riluzole is the only molecule to date approved for the treatment of the pathology. The data that have accumulated over time have not disavowed its role but, on the contrary, have reinforced it. The patient”, who “must start treatment as soon as possible”, up to now, was “forced, during the course of the disease, to change the type of intake – capsules or liquids – because he developed dysphagia and the transition from one type of riluzole formulation to another was experienced as a defeat. The possibility of introducing a type of treatment unique, it represents a continuity of treatment – underlines the expert – This concept is very important for the patient and for the caregiver who must help the patient in taking the drug. The possibility of helping the patient from the beginning with a single formulation It certainly represents a very important advantage.”
In this regard, a study “relating for example to the elements that define the preference of one type of intake over another on a certain number of patients, published at the end of last year, tends to demonstrate – concludes Silani – that the preference of the patient moves towards an assumption that does not imply the motility of the tongue itself”.
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