Province to help fund MS treatment trials

Newfoundland and Labrador will help fund clinical trials of a treatment that appears to ease symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Health Minister Jerome Kennedy said the government will pay for a portion of the national research on the Zamboni procedure — named for Italian Dr. Paoli Zamboni, who pioneered it — which is also known as the “liberation treatment.”

Kennedy said the decision was made after other provinces indicated they were willing to financially support trials being conducted by the MS Society of Canada.

“That being the case, from our perspective, we are certainly willing to pay our share of national clinical trials,” he said.

Kennedy said there needs to be much more discussion before the details — such as how much money the province will commit — are finalized.

An opportunity for that conversation will arise Sept. 13 when the federal, provincial and territorial health ministers meet in St. John’s.

“ The issue of MS funding and clinical trials will certainly be on the agenda at that time and, hopefully, we will able to determine how this will proceed,” Kennedy said.

The operation opens blocked neck veins with angioplasty.

Many MS patients around the world are reporting drastic improvements after undergoing the treatment.

Among them are some people from this province who have travelled to other countries to have their operation at their own expense.

Still, health ministers across the country have cautioned they won’t include the procedure in provincial health plans until more research is done and it’s deemed scientifically sound.

Some provinces have already committed to funding national clinical trials.

Mark Lane, who has MS and who’s been working to see the liberation treatment offered here, welcomed the idea that Newfoundland and Labrador was now joining that group.

“Someone said to me earlier, ‘It’s not everything we were looking for,’ but it’s a lot more than what we had yesterday,’” he said. “It’s a step in the right direction.”

Kennedy has also written to the MS Society regarding its research and is pledging to have representation at an Aug. 26 meeting of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

“I will certainly have someone in Ottawa that day, either present at the meeting or to be briefed as soon as the meeting takes place,” he said.