Posted by noa on January 31, 2004, at 12:57:35
In reply to Re: Transdermal Selegiline, aka. Selegiline Patch???, posted by mrporter1 on January 26, 2004, at 15:06:28
I just did a few minutes of searching on the web, and from what I gather, an announcement is expected around February 1st as to whether it will be approved or not. Apparently the product under review is called EMSAM(TM) (Selegiline Transdermal System) 20mg/20cm2. Made by Somerset Pharmaceuticals, which is jointly owned by Watson Pharmaceuticals and Mylan Labs.
As someone already said, when Straterra was approved, it took about 3 months to make it to market. But I don't know if that is the norm or not. I'm sure there are other posters here who are more familiar with how the process goes.
I hope it is approved. Although perhaps the trials have shown only moderate antidpressant results, veteran poster, Adam, who used to be a regular here at PB, and has stopped in occasionally over the years, was in the clinical trials for the patch and found good results from the patch for his depression, but had to give it up when the trial was over. He then switched to an oral MAOI.
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000312/msgs/27239.html
The patch system for delivering the medication bypasses the problem associated with oral MAOIs, of having to have dietary restrictions to prevent hypertension problems, which aren't an issue at the low doses of oral Selegiline needed for Parkinsons Disease, but are an issue at the higher doses needed for depression.
Let's hope it is passed because even if it isn't the be-all-and-end-all great new antidepressant, it seems to me to be the first new/innovative thing for depression to come around in long time.
One question I do have is whether the selegiline patch can be combined with other meds safely, because it is obvious that many of us who have treatment resistant depression have not gotten enough results out of any single medication and have needed a combination approach to get results.
poster:noa
thread:305480
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040131/msgs/307726.html