Immunocal no longer covered by Medicaid in New York

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

About six weeks ago my husband went to Walmart and, as he had done for over

a year, placed an order for a six-week supply of Immunocal. He had my

daughter's prescription, and in the past this prescription had been covered

by Medicaid.

The Walmart pharmacy was unable to obtain the Immunocal from their usual

supplier, and after about two weeks of many phone calls made by the

pharmacist, he finally learned from the company that New York State

Medicaid was no longer paying for Immunocal. Ouch.

Our daughter cannot do without Immuocal (though she has taken ImmunePro

with good results), so we decided to order it from a distributor.

Fortunately someone (I think it was Al Mellilo--Thank you, Al!) had posted

the name of a pharmacy in California who sold it for about $40 a box, if

the person who ordered it had a prescription.

After we faxed our daughter's prescription for Immunocal to this pharmacy I

had an interesting phone call from a man who works there--I'm not sure if

he is a pharmacist--named Nee Orsey (sp?). He offered to double-check

Walmart's assertion that New York Medicaid no longer covers Immunocal; I

haven't heard back from him on that. He did say that they'd had 100 orders

for Immunocal from New Yorkers in the past week.

He also said, " We are doing a study on Immunocal... " and he asked me some

questions about why our daughter was taking it. Then he asked if I would

mind repeating what I had said to a Dr. " Conkavin, " an immunologist (with a

British accent) who happened to be there. I did, and when I was finished I

got out my copy of " Breakthrough in Cell Defense, " by Gustavo Bounous,

M.D., and this is what I found:

===================

p. 88 - Dr. Bounous was soon fortunate to be introduced to Dr.

Kongshavn, one of McGill's pioneer immunologists. It was more than just

coincidence that Dr. Kongshavn's investigations into the human immune

system would combine well with Bounnous's nutrition work. From the very

first meeting the pair meshed well in their scientific interests, and the

Bounous/Kongshavn teamwork continued for the next decade and beyond. Their

studies and experiments were to produce sartlingly significant

breakthroughs in each of their respective fields.

Fortunately for Dr. Bounous, Dr. Kongshavn took an immediate interest in

his project, without prejudice. An honors graduate of Cambridge University

in England, with a Masters and a PhD degree in immunologyh from McGill,

Kongshavn at that time directed two laboratories funded by independent

research grants from the Medical Research Council of Canada and such other

sources as the National Cancer Institute of Canada and the National

Institutes of Health in the United States.

Dr. Kongshavn had the laboratory, the animals, and most importantly, an

intrinsic belief in what I was doing, " Dr. Bouonous said. Luckily, the pair

met and collaborated at exactly the right time in both their scientific

careers.

" Dr. Bounous came to me with his idea and asked what was the best way to

look at these possible 'immune' effects of such novel dietary change, " Dr.

Kongshavn recounted. " At the time I knew of no one else except Gustavo

[bounous] who was studying such things. "

--------------

p. 103 - Dr. Bounous began his whey protein studies in earnest during his

sabbatical year back at McGill. Working closely with Dr. Kongshavn, the

immunologist, he was able to accelerate his learning curve in this new

field of interest. Their combined interest focused initially on the effect

of dietary amino acids (protein building blocks) on immune reactivity.

Later they would look at a variety of common dietary proteins. To measure

the immune response, Kongsavn suggested they use two fairly standard

methods.

i) The Plaque Forming Cell (PFC) assasy for HUMORAL IMMUNE RESPONSES

(antibody production). This method was used for assaying the immune

response, as modified by Cunningham and Szenberg. Mice were injected

intravenously with sheep red-blood-cells (sRBC) and then the spleen was

assayed for plaque-forming cells (PFC) five days after inoculation when the

response was shown to peak.

ii) Mitogen responses. The method described by Lapp and co-workers was

used to test the mitogen response to diffrent concentrations of

phytohemaglutin (PHA), concanavalin A (con Aj) and lipopolysacchaide (LPS)

mitogens in the spleen with or without stimulation with BCG mycobacerium.

The PHA and Con A responses were indicative of the other fundamental

component of the immune system, i.e., the CELLULAR IMMUNE RESPONSE, while

the LPS response measured the B cell responses

The first results of Bounous and Kongshavn were more definitive for the

negative effect of severe dietary restriction, particularly of some

essential amino acids. They tentatively proposed that this caused a

suppression of the production or function of some inhibitory ell such as a

T-suppressor cell, while not affecting the influencing cell to the same

degree.

But the question still remained. Was there some special dietary

manipulation that could positively and consistently enhance the immune

response? Bounous and Kongshavn werre in pursuit of an answer.

The pair turned to investigating...etc. [i got tired of typing; you're

probably tired of reading.]

===========================

So...it looks as though another Immunocal study, by a very good researcher,

is in the works. Does anyone know more than this?

Sue B.

upstate New York