Kesimpta Patient Assistance

[hobbit]

Kesimpta is my 4th DMT. It is also very expensive, as they all are so Patient Assistance is required. Firstly, my new Neuro was surprised at the ease of his part in requesting this med, he has only prescribed it for a few patients.

For previous DMT's, I've had to compile my medical history, my financial history, coordinate with the paperwork the Dr's office had to compile, jump through hoops, and sacrifices may or may not have happened.

With Kesimpta all I had to do was answer the phone. They sought pre-approval from the insurance and when I said I couldn't afford the monthly deductible they said no problem they would apply for Patient Assistance for me. I had to do nothing. 2 days later I get a call saying I was approved and they wanted to schedule my first med shipment.

Within a week of seeing my Neuro who started the ball rolling I was doing my first injection. I'm overwhelmed by the ease of it all.

[Marco]

Hobbit,
I am excited for you. I talked to my neurologist last year about wanting to switch after approval, but we haven't had an appointment recently.

About your experience.
It's new to the market so they have
plenty of marketing money. They are trying to siphon market share from other B-cell depleting medications, namely ocrelizumab and rituximab that require infusions.

Thoughts off the top of my head


Rituximab (Rituxan) is chimeric and ocrelizumab (Ocrevus) is humanized while ofatumumab(kesimpta) is fully human. Kesimpta being human should prevent patients from developing neutralizing antibodies.

While 1 or 2 infusions per year isn't onerous, 12 quick jabs at home is still much easier. It also removes the steroids from the picture and the IV benadryl that causes unwanted side effects.

The kesimpta dosing is monthly so that should prevent early repopulation of CD20 cells that are common in rituximab and ocrelizumab patients.


Kesimpta should also take market share from people still on other Injection medications. Fewer shots for 2 to 3 times the average effectiveness? That shouldn't be a tough sale. If you are on an injectable and want the biggest opportunity to reach No Evidence of Disease Activity there's only one viable option - kesimpta. Of all injectables, kesimpta gives you the best opportunity to have zero relapses, zero lesions and zero disability progression.

Kesimpta was compared head to head with Aubagio and crushed it in the trials. On Aubagio? Ask your neurologist about the trial results.

Tysabri users with high titre levels may consider jumping ship. Lemtrada users with breakthrough activity were often moved to rituximab. Now they have a new potential option.

What's left is the oral medications that fit in the center of efficacy (with higher exception of mavenclad and lower exception of Aubagio). I get the pills are easy to take and no one ever liked needles, but consider the potential upsides of probably the next blockbuster MS drug.


What Are Side Effects of Kesimpta?

Side effects of Kesimpta include:

• upper respiratory tract infection,
• headache,
• injection-related reactions (fever, headache, muscle pain, chills, and fatigue), and
• local injection site reactions (redness, pain, itching, and swelling)

Complete information can be found here: https://www.kesimpta.com/side-effect...side-effects/?


Kesimpta may also complicate taking vaccines so please talk to your neurologist about that.

almost 1 am here... bed time!

Blessings one and all.

Hobbit please keep us in the loop. I'm cheering for you.

[Seasha]

Thanks hobbit and Marco for the important information given. I am going to move this thread into the Kesimpta sub-forum under the Medication forum so others looking for specific info about this drug can find it here.

https://www.msworld.org/forum/forum/...ments/kesimpta

[hobbit]

My Neuro wanted to prescribe Ocrevus. I did my homework and for me Kesimpta was a better fit. I don't drive so I would have to make travel arrangements for infusions, plus when I was on Tysabri a couple of times the needle dislodged and had to be replaced. Oral medications were off the list completely due to Gastroparesis, I have to juggle all oral medications they can take an hour to kick in or 20 hrs. I was concerned about a build-up of meds in my system.

The first shot was a doozy, complete with chills, nausea and a fever that peaked at 104.6F (on a funny note I accidently had the thermometer set to Celsius so for most of the might I was reading 87 thinking I was fine as I crawled back to bed). I have had the 3 starter shots and my first monthly shot with no further issues or reactions. All of the injections come already installed in an easy to use applicator.

I am very optimistic, as always.

Peace,
Anna

[Pistachio]

My Neuro wanted to prescribe Ocrevus. I did my homework and for me Kesimpta was a better fit. I don't drive so I would have to make travel arrangements for infusions, plus when I was on Tysabri a couple of times the needle dislodged and had to be replaced. Oral medications were off the list completely due to Gastroparesis, I have to juggle all oral medications they can take an hour to kick in or 20 hrs. I was concerned about a build-up of meds in my system.

The first shot was a doozy, complete with chills, nausea and a fever that peaked at 104.6F (on a funny note I accidently had the thermometer set to Celsius so for most of the might I was reading 87 thinking I was fine as I crawled back to bed). I have had the 3 starter shots and my first monthly shot with no further issues or reactions. All of the injections come already installed in an easy to use applicator.

I am very optimistic, as always.

Peace,
Anna

Hello, Hobbit.

I am curious how things ended up for you with Kesimpta? I see that this thread is older now so I assume you are many months (years?) now from taking it. I am doing research on Kesimpta as a possibility for my first DMT.