Reply To: rituxin (again)

One thing to keep in mind in CIDP treatments is the dosage amounts. Most of these drugs, including Rituxan, don’t undergo clinical trials for CIDP. So when you hear the 1 in 1000 number, you have to wonder what dosage amounts they were getting, and how it compares to what you will be getting.

For example, I found info on the FDA website that says out of roughly 100,000 Rheumatoid Arthritis patients exposed to Ritxuan, only 3 ended up getting PML: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/UCM187792.pdf

Since RA is also auto-immune, it’s likely that your dosage amounts would be similar to the recommended amounts for RA.

On the scale of CIDP treatments, I would say Rituxan does seem a bit more dangerous compared to others. For me personally, I would make sure I tried Prednisone, IVIG, Plasma Exchange, and Imuran before I gave Rituxan a shot.