?By Angela Hall, Leader-Post

September 19, 2011

Health Minister Don McMorris says the province will announce details this week of how $5-million in provincial funding will be used to help advance clinical trials of the "liberation" procedure.

The Saskatchewan Party government's initial plan to fund provincial trials of the potential treatment for multiple sclerosis suffered a scientific setback in June, when the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation said the single research proposal that it received didn't meet the criteria set out by the foundation's expert panel.

But McMorris said the government has been working ever since to determine how the funding can still be used to further clinical trials, and is close to making an announcement.

"The point that I continue to stress is that we're still committed. The $5 million is still committed to Saskatchewan residents getting into some trials that will further the science. We're not backing away from that whatsoever," the minister said in a recent interview.

McMorris confirmed that the province is looking beyond just participating in whatever trial comes forward from the federal government.

"We're looking at all our options, what we possibly can do to speed up the clinical trials and help, as we've said all the way along, either prove or disprove the efficacy of the liberation treatment."

The procedure involves angioplasty to open veins in the neck to increase blood flow from the brain and spinal cord. It's based on a theory that links MS with the vein blockages, a condition referred to as chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI.

Premier Brad Wall took the unusual step more than a year ago of announcing the province would fund clinical trials if a research proposal came forward, a decision that was at first met with skepticism from other provincial leaders. However, some premiers have since announced they are willing to fund trials. In June, Ottawa also reversed course and announced plans for a trial, a two-phase approach of a smaller scale than what had been proposed by Saskatchewan.

In the U.S., an online registry of clinical trials (www. clinicaltrials.gov) indicates there's a trial related to venous angioplasty and MS in Albany, New York.

But untold numbers of MS sufferers have rejected the prospect of waiting for the outcome of research and are instead seeking out the treatment at clinics in the U.S. and further afield where they can pay to get the procedure done.

McMorris said the province has not been dissuaded by some recent scientific literature that casts doubt on whether the liberation treatment is as promising as was initially hoped. He said he regularly hears from Saskatchewan people who feel the procedure has provided some level of relief from MS symptoms, and that warrants further study of the theory.

But the province won't be rushed into providing the procedure as an insured service, either, he said.

"Until procedures such as this are proven in the medical community through proper research, it's tough for us to do that. But having said that, we want to move that science ahead as quickly as possible."



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