The United Colon Vlog

Three weeks ago I was contacted by Salix Pharmaceuticals, a company specializing in treating gastrointestinal diseases, about the release of a new medicine, Apriso (mesalamine). This medicine is intended for patients with ulcerative colitis, and has shown effectiveness in maintaining remission for up to six months.

For those of you looking for other medicinal options before considering surgery, this new drug might be worth checking out.

Here’s what the press release says about the drug:

Salix Pharmaceuticals introduces APRISO (mesalamine) 0.375 g for the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC). APRISO is the first and only once–daily 5–ASA featuring Intellicor delayed and extended delivery – for the successful long–term management of UC.

APRISO begins releasing mesalamine at a pH ≥ 6 and gradually distributes mesalamine throughout the entire colon. APRISO has been shown to be effective in helping UC patients stay in remission for up to six months.

For use in patients 18 years of age or older. Apriso can be taken with or without meals.

Naturally I’m a bit skeptical of medicine as nothing worked for me, and many of you have told me that nothing works for you. So I asked questions of Dr. Russell Cohen about the exact workings of this medicine. Dr. Cohen is an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Co-Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at The University of Chicago Medical Center.

Apriso is taken once a day, usually in the morning, with or without food. It is taken in doses of four 0.375-g capsules. Apriso can be taken with other medicines, but it has shown to be effective as the sole medicine of people with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis.

Apriso is meant as a maintenance drug for long-term use, so other drugs may be needed to get a flare up into remission. Studies of Apriso have shown it to be effective for up to six months, after which time the current studies stop, so mostly likely a person would continue taking Apriso longer than six months if it is working for them.

Apriso is slowly dissolved in areas of the body that have a pH equal or greater than 6, so it is recommended that Apriso not be taken with antacids as antacids will affect the pH of the body.

Clinical trials of Apriso did not reveal any serious risk factors while using the medicine. At least 3% of adult patients on Apriso suffered slight side effects of headaches, diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, and cold and flu-like symptoms.

I’m not sure what it means to have diarrhea as a side effect. I’ve been told that diarrhea is a side effect of other ulcerative colitis medicines before too.

Finally, most patients who took Apriso did not see a quick relapse of a flare up, suggesting that the medicine works quickly in controlling colitis. How long should a patient take Apriso is s/he isn’t seeing any results? That’s a depends question, as each person has to make his/her own decision with his/her doctor if results aren’t coming.

So that’s everything I know about the medicine! Salix has a website devoted specifically to Apriso that might give you a little more information.

The best way to manage your health is to have enough information available to make informed decisions.

Keep fighting,
~Dennis