I have seen multiple posts about the commercial for the MS drug Tecfidera but haven’t said anything about it until now. I’ve been distracted and off my game between sepsis at the end of August, the anniversary of the day my sister was diagnosed with brain cancer at the start of September, and then the anniversary of her death on the 2nd of November. I’ve seen the commercial several times and thought a number of things that I never got around to writing down.
I just saw the commercial again
and decided that because I am already on the computer that now is the perfect
time to make my thoughts on this known. I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis
at 19 in 2003 though the doctors now believe I was 8 or 9 when my MS journey
actually began. It just wasn’t thought of as a pediatric disease so no one
thought to look for it. It still largely isn’t considered a pediatric disease
and most primary care physicians still don’t add it to the list of
possibilities when a child comes in with bizarre symptoms but I will say that
it’s getting better and more kids are being diagnosed when it starts which
gives them better odds for their future with the disease. As someone who has
been living with it for years, I find the commercial for Tecfidera to be a
terribly bad representation of life with the disease and of the drug.
The Tecfidera commercial shows a
woman capable of doing pretty much anything because she takes this pill. She
seems to transition very fluidly between jogging, swimming, hiking in the
woods, and going to an amusement park. To look at her you’d never guess she has
an incurable, progressive, and debilitating disease. I keep waiting every time
I see it for the disclaimer that this is an actor portrayal and that she DOES
NOT have the disease herself.
This commercial makes it appear
like those of us with MS simply need to pop this little pill and we’ll be off
to the races immediately with more energy than we know what to do with. This is
false advertising and it is unacceptable and insulting to portray people with MS
and the disease in general in this way. It gives the public, most of whom can’t
really tell you much about MS to start with, the wrong impression of what it’s
like for a person to actually live with MS.
I actually took Tecfidera so I
know what I’m talking about when I say that it doesn’t represent the drug well.
I also know several others who have or are taking this drug and no one has
found it easy to start. In my experience and in the experiences of several
others, for the first two weeks or so you turn into an itchy tomato every time
you take it turning bright red all over and feeling almost as though you have
poison ivy. That’s just the starter dose. It takes two weeks or so of suffering
through that before you feel human again after taking it but there’s more to
come. Once you’ve moved up to the full dose you go through those two weeks or
so once again. It’s not an allergic reaction to the drug it’s simply a side
effect.
I, for one, did not get the
bursts of energy that the woman in the commercial seems to have nor did it get
rid of all of my symptoms allowing me to leap small buildings in a single bound
which is basically what the commercial is saying. No one else I know who has
been on this medication has had either of those things happen either.
I can’t speak for anyone else,
though I know many will agree with me, but if you’re going to make a commercial
about MS or about a treatment for MS, you should do it realistically. The
reality of MS is so very different from that of the way the company chose to depict
it. I realize they are trying to sell their drug and make money and a
depressing commercial is not the way to go but you can make a positive commercial
while still being accurate.
Just my two cents on the
Tecfidera commercial. Some people may take issue with it and think I’m wrong
but I believe most will agree with me.
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