Mr Stephenson was diagnosed in 2003 when, after leaving the armed forces, he began to struggle to exercise, close his eyes or smile.<\/p>\n
“Food would get stuck in my throat and I would have to reach down and pull it out,” he said.<\/p>\n
“When I was drinking, I was choking, and water was pouring out of my nose.<\/p>\n
“You worry, ‘how am I going to live like this, what am I going to do?'”<\/p>\n
The father-of-four’s symptoms fitted in with a recent car crash, but physiotherapists referred him to a neurologist who tested for the condition.<\/p>\n
Mr Stephenson said: “The diagnosis was an immense relief.<\/p>\n
“If you have a chronic illness, it’s good to learn about it, because you’re going to be stuck with it forever.”<\/p>\n
Adults who took part in a trial for efgartigimod reported regaining the ability to walk daily, dress independently, and some returned to work or education.<\/p>\n
“Anybody who is on the drug at the minute can stay on it, but for new patients, it’s not going to be available to them.<\/p>\n
“I feel so lucky to be on it,” Mr Stephenson said.<\/p>\n
“I feel honoured and privileged to have been on the trial.”<\/p>\n
Doctors will be able to privately prescribe the drug, also known as Vyvgart, meaning patients who can pay for it will still be able to benefit.<\/p>\n
According to drug company Argenx, the price for one 400mg infusion vial is \u00a36,569.73.<\/p>\n
The number of vials used for one infusion, which Mr Stephenson said he has fortnightly, depends on the individual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr Stephenson was diagnosed in 2003 when, after leaving the armed forces, he began to struggle to exercise,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[105,4326,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-188360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114691760761565961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}