Tecfidera VS. Gilenya

[Elliejah]

Hey Gang,

Been on Gilenya for about 2yrs, hardly any side effects other than slight weight gain.

Wondering what people that were on Gilenya and now TEC are saying?

Gonna talk to my doc soon, but the review's I've been reading so far have me in belief that Gilenya is better.

Cheers!

[Trent]

I don't know about the med you are on, but I'm starting to regain some faith in Tecfidera. My first dose felt like I was literally going to die, including being on the verge of losing consciousness. However, I took my second dose with Benadryl and had absolutely no side effects. Not even a little flushing. Today I'm going to start my twice a day regiment and start weaning myself off of the Benadryl.

In all honesty, if you don't have any annoying side effects or a serious reason to switch, I'm not sure I would. I'm a "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it" type of person, though.

[Marco]

Gonna talk to my doc soon, but the review's I've been reading so far have me in belief that Gilenya is better.

For each person there is a "better" drug that they will individual respond best to. With each of these drugs there are both pros and cons to them. Since both drugs are fairly new we are still building the knowledge base through both clinical trials and real world patient usage. Statistically, both drugs are effective (in trials) with a small mathematical advantage going to Tecfidera. Gilenya and Tecfidera appear to have comparable effectiveness when treating MS.

From a side effect standpoint, these forums would certainly spook me about Tecfidera when compared with Gilenya. The immediate, short-term side effects of Tecfidera are palpable and obvious. There is no doubt you are flushing or having GI problems or whatever. They may even be extreme for some people, but are generally manageable and lessen over time to become completely tolerable. The initial dose and when you increase the dose to 240 seem to be days with increased side effects. The long term effects of the drug are unknown, but we have a general idea based on the Fumaderm safety profile of over 180,000 patient years.

The initial dose of Gilenya requires in-person monitoring. Not because you may "flush" or have GI problems, but because in rare situations it could be life-threatening. I agree for most people the day-to-day side effects are more pleasant. The question remains what damage is being done to your body that you are unaware of. Gilenya has a lesser known long term safety profile, but we do know in rare cases can have severe side effects.

For me, I'll trade the palpable daily side effects of Tecfidera over the potential long term side effects of Gilenya. This may eventually become a "ford" vs "chevy" debate, but I'll leave you with links to the side effect of each drug and let you decide.

Gilenya
http://www.webmd.com/drugs/drug-1546...l&pagenumber=6

Tecfidera
http://www.webmd.com/drugs/drug-1638...2&pagenumber=6

[hope32]

Wow, Marco, that was a great summary. Thank you for that! It fits with my impressions, though I hadn't ended up researching Gilenya as much. My MS specialist had mentioned there was some concern about it wiping out your immune system long-term and that scared me a little bit.

For me so far, the Tec S/E's have been very manageable other than a couple of rough mornings. I've learned so much from this board and the nurses about what to eat with it, how to premedicate, etc., and I think that may have helped. And I know part of it is just varying individual responses to different drugs. I had terrible injection site reactions with Copaxone and ongoing significant flulike symptoms from Beta, then developed a pre-ulcer from taking so much ibuprofen to counteract the Beta!

[Elliejah]

Thanks for the responses. I think my main concern about TEC and the reviews I've been reading is the weakness/increased problems walking. My walking is already affected and I do trip and fall every so often. I've had attacks where I can't control my legs at all in the past. The thought of a medication doing this scares the hell out of me.

Like you said, each medication will work different on everyone, and until I try it, I'll never know what effect it would have on me.

I might keep going on Gilenya as my side effects are incredibly minimal and see what my doc has to say down the line.

If anyone else has other opinions or stories about G vs. T, I'd love to hear them.

-E

[Temagami]

I´d like some input too- I´m on G- going on over a year, side effects are hair loss and low lymphocytes- below 300 even with every third day dosing. Neuro appt. next week to talk about montly WBC panel if staying with G or switching- ahhh to what? JVC+. Failed Copaxone. Any ideas?

[suzannejc]

I would love to have stayed on Tecfidera. Side effects were tolerable. Was on for 4 months and experienced increased leg weakness (which had never been an issue). So talking about Gileyna now...