Amevive Prescribing / Dosage
Amevive is usually administered in 2 courses of 12 weeks each; with a 12 week break between them.
Amevive can be administered as an intramuscular injection (15 mg) or an intravenous injection (7.5 mg), once per week.
The administration should take place in a doctor's office. In very rare cases Amevive can be administered at home, providing that it is done under a physician’s guidance and supervision.
The T cell counts should be monitored before initiating the treatment, and weekly throughout the course of treatment. The course should be temporarily withheld if the T cell counts are below the norm. If the counts remain below the norm for 1 month, then the drug should be altogether discontinued.
Amevive provides significant improvement after the 1st course (clinical trials: 21% of people achieved 75% improvement, and 42% of people achieved 50% improvement at week 14).
Patients, who achieved 75% improvement with their 1st course of Amevive, maintained 50% improvement for a medium of 7 months.
More patients respond better to the 2nd course of Amevive. The second course also kept the patients from psoriasis for longer in comparison to the first course.
Additional courses can only be initiated if the T cell counts are normal.
Information on the results and the safety of treatment beyond the two treatment cycles are limited.
|
