MSActiveSource

Avonex

Avonex (interferon beta-1a)
Avonex contains the active ingredient interferon beta-1a. Interferons are natural proteins made in your body which help protect you from infections and diseases.

Avonex is used to treat people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who are able to walk, who have had at least two relapses (attacks) in the past 3 years and who do not have evidence of progressive MS. Avonex helps to reduce the number and severity of the relapses that you have and slows the course of the condition.

Avonex can also be used in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). CIS is an individual's first episode of neurological symptoms lasting at least 24 hours and can be an indicator of what may turn out to be MS. For more information about the course of MS go to Types of MS.

How Avonex works
In MS, your body’s defence (immune) system attacks its own myelin – the ‘insulation’ that surrounds nerve fibres. When myelin is damaged, the messages between the brain and other parts of the body are disrupted. This is what causes the symptoms of MS. Avonex is thought to work by stopping your body’s immune system from attacking the myelin.

How is Avonex taken?
Avonex is injected into the muscle (intramuscular) once a week. The recommended weekly dose of 30 micrograms of Avonex is contained in a 0.5 or 1 ml injection (about one tenth or one fifth of a teaspoon in volume).

You can inject Avonex yourself at home, without the help of a healthcare professional.

More detailed prescribing information on Avonex can be found by going to www.medicines.org.uk. Typing Avonex in the search box and pressing Go will bring you to a patient information leaflet on Avonex.

Your neurologist will prescribe Avonex according to guidance in the Risk-sharing scheme. The Risk-sharing Scheme, which was set up in 2001 by the Department of Health, makes sure that DMTs are available to people with MS on the NHS. Licensed for the treatment of MS in 1997, Avonex is marketed by Biogen Idec Ltd.