German Remedies, part of the Zydus Cadila group, which launched Interferon beta –1b drug under brand name Betaferon in the Indian market a few days ago, has tied up with the Multiple Sclerosis Society of India to train select nurses to take care of MS patients.

German Remedies has donated 8 lakh rupees to the society and will train the nurses with the help of experts from Schering AG. At present India has about 50,000 MS patients scattered in different parts of the country. The society, an NGO for the welfare of MS patients, has an organised network to connect many of these patients and has branches in about ten Indian cities. Nurses will be trained and appointed in cities suggested by the MS Society. The nurses will visit homes of the patients to offer counseling to the MS patient and family and will assist in overall improvement of the patient’s life style, confidence and in drug administration.

“Normally pharma companies are not interested in launching drugs for a small number of patients. We launched Betaferon as part of our commitment to the society and our Indian people. We have been associated with MS society for sometime, and the drug was in fact launched as per their request. Now we take up the responsibility of helping the patients as well and in disease management. I think in India this will be the first instance in which a pharmaceutical company trains and assists in appointing nurses to help patients,” said J C Jani, managing director of German Remedies.

He said currently the drug is priced at about Rs.6,500/vial and is advised to be administered on alternate days. Monthly treatment costs come around Rs.90,000. If the government waives the customs duty on the drug, it would become cheaper by at least 40 per cent and would be affordable to numerous patients, said Jani and added the company has requested the government to waive the duty.

Betaferon is a subcutaneous injection and is the only Interferon efficacious in the secondary progressive stage of multiple sclerosis. The product is being marketed in collaboration with Schering AG of Germany.

MS is a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system leading to muscular weakness, loss of coordination, speech and visual disturbances. MS is still a mystery disease, which has no cause, no means of prevention and no cure and the disease and its symptoms varies from patient to patient. Betaferon offers a therapy that improves the lives of people suffering from MS through better disease management. It is a top global product of Schering AG with over 200,000 patients on this treatment worldwide registering sales of 780 million Euros in the year 2004.