Alvine Pharmaceuticals Obtains Patents For Celiac Disease Therapies

[patriceo15]

I get got this in my email thought I would share with everyone if you have not seen it yet

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Open Original Shared Link

[Gemini]

I get got this in my email thought I would share with everyone if you have not seen it yet

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

The problem I have with these articles is that they always state the only treatment for celiac disease is a strict adherence to a gluten-free diet and that the diet is very difficult to follow. I just do not agree with that at all. Once it is mastered, I have not found this diet difficult at all. For me, being able to eat a good, varied diet without getting horribly sick, and done without any meds, is a gift in itself. Telling people who are not Celiac, or those who are undiagnosed, that the diet is difficult produces a mindset that is not good to start with. If you tell someone it's horrible and difficult to follow, it will be for them.

As far as a pill for Celiac, it's not even a consideration for me. I just doubt that a pill will be able to shut off the autoimmune reaction to the point where there will be no damage. Plus, I would bet that this medication will cost a bundle, all so people can eat crappy, fast food again? Look at what other meds cost and with the lure that eating gluten again will be for some people, they may be able to eat pizza but they'll be financially in the hole. My dislike for pharmaceutical companies is showing but what they charge for meds is outrageous and I have no doubt it will be the same for this. I also would put money on the fact that if this is marketed, all of a sudden doctors will take celiac disease seriously and everyone that was told they have IBS will be put on the gluten pill!

[happygirl]

Thanks for sharing this! Great news that numerous areas of research are being investigated (breaking down gluten (this pill) and stopping the autoimmune reaction (Alba Therapeutics))

Research is always needed---the more we know, the better!

[Lisa]

The problem I have with these articles is that they always state the only treatment for celiac disease is a strict adherence to a gluten-free diet and that the diet is very difficult to follow. I just do not agree with that at all. Once it is mastered, I have not found this diet difficult at all. For me, being able to eat a good, varied diet without getting horribly sick, and done without any meds, is a gift in itself. Telling people who are not Celiac, or those who are undiagnosed, that the diet is difficult produces a mindset that is not good to start with. If you tell someone it's horrible and difficult to follow, it will be for them.

As far as a pill for Celiac, it's not even a consideration for me. I just doubt that a pill will be able to shut off the autoimmune reaction to the point where there will be no damage. Plus, I would bet that this medication will cost a bundle, all so people can eat crappy, fast food again? Look at what other meds cost and with the lure that eating gluten again will be for some people, they may be able to eat pizza but they'll be financially in the hole. My dislike for pharmaceutical companies is showing but what they charge for meds is outrageous and I have no doubt it will be the same for this. I also would put money on the fact that if this is marketed, all of a sudden doctors will take celiac disease seriously and everyone that was told they have IBS will be put on the gluten pill!

Quite eliquently spoken! My I shadow your words?

[Takala]

The diet is not hard. The problem is that food manufacturers insist on using processed grain byproducts as fillers in nearly all manufactured food products where they should not be expected to have that ingredient, and don't want to take responsibility to verify the source of said grain byproducts as to what they really are and where they come from.

This makes the final product somewhat cheaper but it is not healthier and it raises other issues of nutrition (increased hidden starch and carbohydrate content which play around with the insulin resistance and blood sugars) and of accidental cross contamination resulting in potential allergic/autoimmune reactions or even deliberate altering of ingredients to be unsafe.

Instead of insisting manufacturers tell the consumer the truth about what is in the product on the label, they wish to create people who can be treated with pharmaceuticals so they can in turn eat... anything. It is the ultimate drug manufacturer's dream... requiring daily medication to perform a simple biological function such as eating to survive.

[pixiegirl]

Well we've had this discussion many times about the other drug and I fall somewhere in the middle.

Staying gluten free for me, after years isn't difficult at all however.. some of us are occasionally forced into situations where we have a greater risk of getting glutened then we usually do.

I travel for business, often days at a time and part of my job is dining with clients, its not a perk, its where business is done and so I often have to eat out. Over the years I've gotten good with that too and I'm rarely glutend in restaurants anymore. But on the occasion that I am, I'm terribly sick for days.... and when I'm doing a business trip I have a full schedule I can't spend a week in bed.

And so for me... being able to take a pill once in a while when I feel the risk of glutening might be high would be a terrific help. I'd never start eating gluten again intentionally.

My daughter went to Disney with her dad last week.. of course Disney is great but on a day trip to the beach she ate at Pizzeria Uno (ordered off their gluten-free menu) and got glutened and so for the rest of her vacation she was ill. She would have loved a pill.

So I personally am glad that it seems like we will have these options in a few years.

Susan

[debmidge]

Well, we'll take a look at how they market it, how the doctors prescribe it and who is taking it and see how it all turns out. It appears to be more of a good thing, than a bad thing if it is emphasized that it's not a subsitute for a gluten free diet. And there could be some "off label" uses of it eventually. I don't think any mature, sane celiac will think that the pill takes the place of the gluten-free diet; nor do I think the drug company will say that either without fearing being sued.

My husband wants to have a pill such as thing as a "back up" plan only.

[phakephur]

What will be the effect of this pill on the burgeoning gluten free food market?

I am concerned that the development of a pharmaceutical therapy for celiac disease will result in the availability of fewer rather than more gluten free options.

[hez]

At the risk of being stoned I do at times find the gluten-free life to be difficult. Want to go to a friends house, out to dinner or on a vacation? Not so easy. Do I find the diet worthwhile absolutly! Would I knowingly eat gluten? No way! I find eating gluten-free to be very easy at home. However, in social situations it is not as easy. I would welcome a drug that would allow me to go to a friend's or out to dinner where I could be protected from cc. I get sick from even the slightest cc a pill that would take that worry/illness away is welcome in my book.

Hez

[debmidge]

At the risk of being stoned I do at times find the gluten-free life to be difficult. Want to go to a friends house, out to dinner or on a vacation? Not so easy. Do I find the diet worthwhile absolutly! Would I knowingly eat gluten? No way! I find eating gluten-free to be very easy at home. However, in social situations it is not as easy. I would welcome a drug that would allow me to go to a friend's or out to dinner where I could be protected from cc. I get sick from even the slightest cc a pill that would take that worry/illness away is welcome in my book.

Hez

Hez: we agree with you...the gluten-free diet for my husband is difficult but only made so by sad fact that he went so long going misdiagnosed that he developed other food sensitivities...so he's got a lot of foods to avoid for one reason or another. Life never got "normal" again for him even after he went 100% gluten free. He would welcome a more "normal" existence while protecting himself from cc due to eating out or at other people's homes. Right now he is a hermit - afraid to take a chance of eating outside of our home. So WE won't stone you for feeling like this.

[home-based-mom]

While all of the people who don't particularly like the idea of this medication make very valid points that I cannot disagree with, I still like the idea of something to have available as a back-up plan for use when what we eat is not totally under our control. Right now I don't travel or eat out much at all, but some day I would like to. I would like to take many short-term mission trips where frankly I would have NO control over what I ate unless I brought ALL of my food with me, which isn't possible. Personally I would never intentionally eat gluteny food, but being able to eat anywhere other than home for whatever reason without the risk of being sick for a week would be wonderful. Pharmaceutical or not, this sounds like a much more useful product than those test strips!