Lonie - The infusions are given are every 4 weeks. I will report back on what my flex sig has shown.
Mina G - I am sorry to hear of your horribly long flare. I have had UC for almost 10 years, and have been flaring for pretty much the whole of the last 7 years. Actually, I have recently come off of another trial (Abatacept). I did quite well on that, but the drug company suddenly stopped the entire trial last summer, so I had to come off. I have tried every UC drug out there! Including Remicade and even other immune-suppressants not approved for UC, in a desperate attempt to get into remission. Nothing worked.
I am also steroid dependant, and have been on pred for 8 years straight (mostly low doses now though). So, my GI was keen for me to finally come off the pred, so suggested this trial. I was only too happy to go onto it.
My bleeding comes and goes. So, it is hard to really tell if this drug has made it stop, but I have stopped bleeding now.
I highly recommend you try this drug. It is very new and selectively targets the inflammatory cells in the gut - something no other drug I have been on has ever done.
Unfortunately, I had to have a colonoscopy AND a flex sig in the 2 weeks prior to going onto the trial, which was a complete nightmare. But, these things just have to be done sometimes..
Take care