Orencia drug TV ad mentions chronic Lyme disease ; L. Sigal, connected with Orencia drug launch, champions Post Lyme as 'psychosomotic illness

[Guest guest]

Subject: Orencia TV ad mentions "chronic Lyme disease" discussions on this topic with some friendsTo: dclaesson@...Date: Saturday, December 4, 2010, 11:46 AM

Lenny Sigal, who is a leading champion of the idea that Post-Lyme syndrome is a psychosomatic illness, is involved with the launch of Orencia. He worked at BMS, the company that markets Orencia. As the number of children with chronic Lyme goes up, the more money BMS makes on Orencia.

Here are my notes on Sigal's involvement:

Both Orencia and Abilify have recently received approval for use on children, and Bristol-Myers Squibb recently donated $5 million to the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Wood University Hospital (RWJUH) to create three new clinical

centers,

including a new center for the treatment of Rheumatic Diseases in Children.

One of these centers, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pediatric Metabolism Center, which addresses pediatric obesity and its related health consequences is run by SIgal’s wife Barbara Snyder. The Bristol-Myers Squibb Pediatric Rheumatology Center, dedicated to the treatment and research of rheumatic diseases in children such as lupus and arthritis, opened this past spring.

As the former chief of the Rheumatology at RWJUH, Sigal is a volunteer lecturer at the RWJ medical school (one or two hour-long lectures a year), and he publishes jointly with his former collegues at this medical school.

Orencia, an RA drug made by Bristol Myers, has been running a new TV ad here (Portland, OR).

The ad mentions 2 specific warnings - COPD and chronic Lyme disease. Spoken very slowly.

I could find no mention of this in their package insert... http://packageinserts.bms.com/pi/pi_orencia.pdf

This is a milestone for a major drug company to acknowledge chronic Lyme disease, especially in a TV advertisement.

[Guest What was the warning? !]

Does anyone know exactly what the concern is?