Ken Berwitz
Do you know someone, or know of someone, who suffers from the degenerative disease, Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) – also known as “Lou Gehrig\’s Disease”?
If so, you should be elated at the progress being made in alleviating – possibly even curing – this dreaded condition, by a medical technology company in (gasp!!) Israel. The US Food and Drug Administration certainly is; it has “fast-tracked” the treatment – called “NurOwn”, and developed by Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics
From Israel\’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
The US Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) has designated NurOwn, a unique Israeli experimentaltreatment for neurodegenerative diseases, as a “fast track” product – meaningit could find its way to the market more quickly than many other drugcandidates.
NurOwn was developedby BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics based on a technique developed by Profs. Daniel Offen and EldadMelamed at Tel Aviv University for growing and enhancing stem cells harvestedfrom patients\’ own bone marrow, rather than from controversial fetal stem-cellsources. The enhanced cells secrete elevated levels of nerve-growth factorsthat protect existing motor neurons, promote motor neuron growth andreestablish nerve-muscle interaction.
If you watch this video about NurOwn, you will find that, while it still is in the experimental stage, there is hope that, if the development of this treatment and its results continue to go as well as they have so far, in as early as five years there may be hope of a cure.
This is what we lose if we lose Israel.
Let\’s not.
Oh, one other thing: Ironically, one of the people who would benefit from the NurOwn treatment – now, and certainly if it leads to a cure – would be Stephen Hawking, the world-renowned physicist who is ravaged with ALS — and happens to be an Israel-hater who is all in for the BDS (Boycott Divest Sanction) movement.
I think someone should ask him to pledge that, in the spirit of his Israel hatred and insistence on boycotting anything from that country, he will turn down NurOwn even if it can cure him.
Don\’t expect him to OK that pledge….
