Comebacks from the Cold
Click here for the Prescribing Information and Medication Guide for the treatment option described in this podcast: bit.ly/4wKpGmO. What is it like having the rug pulled out from under you by Cold Agglutinin Disease (CAD) — a rare, difficult to diagnose condition? What happened for some patients when they had the opportunity to try a treatment that might help them resume on the activities they enjoy? Individual results will vary. Host Elin Lantz Lesser talks with real patients living with CAD and a medical expert to answer those questions and more. Learn more about CAD and find resources at ExploreCADTreatment.com. A podcast from Recordati Rare Diseases. PP-ENJ-US-0181-v1.0-08/2026
Comebacks from the Cold
We’re in Our Comeback Era
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Click here for the Prescribing Information and Medication Guide for the treatment option described in this podcast: bit.ly/4wKpGmO. Host Elin Lantz Lesser gathers her interviewees for an uncommon meeting to discuss what treating their Cold Agglutinin Disease (CAD) has meant to them. Together, they talk all things CAD, give us a peek into the treatment process, and discover a rare sense of community. Elin also checks in with a hematologist to get more expert insights about CAD. A podcast from Recordati Rare Diseases.
He called me in his office and said, What I am thinking is that you have cold aggluten disease.
SPEAKER_02Nancy, did you know you have cold agglutins? No. You have cold agglutin disease, and it's a very, very rare disease.
SPEAKER_05Gloria, Duffy, and Nancy had each been told they had cold agglutin disease, or CAD. It's a rare autoimmune hemolytic anemia where part of the immune system, known as the complement pathway, mistakenly attacks and destroys its own red blood cells. It can lead to anemia and symptoms like fatigue or weakness, shortness of breath, and even an irregular heartbeat. But they learned there was no treatment designed specifically for patients with this condition. So patients with CAD had to try other treatments not specific to their disease or cope with symptoms untreated. One day, in 2022, that all changed. One by one, they learned that a treatment specifically designed for patients with CAD, the first of its kind, had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
SPEAKER_04And we learned it was a true thing that was a potential help for me. And oh, she and I were both so elated.
SPEAKER_02And I just stood up and screamed, hallelujah! And my husband's like, we gotta get you on this drug right away.
SPEAKER_03I was like, all for it.
SPEAKER_05This is part two of Comebacks from the Cold, a podcast from Sanafi. I'm Aileen Lance Lesser. In part one, we heard patients struggle with unexplained symptoms, then finally get diagnosed with cold aggluten and disease. In this episode, we hear what happened to Duffy, Gloria, and Nancy after they learned about this treatment option. They were glad this treatment existed, but each one of them considered the decision to go on the drug carefully. They had some hesitations.
SPEAKER_02You had to get vaccinations, all the side effects that are listed.
SPEAKER_03I was a little fearful of what kind of side effects I might have.
SPEAKER_05So yes, I had some some concerns. And they learned that if they went on the treatment, they'd have to get infused every two weeks. It wasn't a small commitment, but they'd been struggling with their symptoms for a while. The fatigue in particular was wearing on them.
SPEAKER_03Get in the car and drive to the grocery store, and then I'd sit there in my car for a while, trying to pump myself up to get in there to go grocery shopping.
SPEAKER_02You just don't know when it's gonna hit you, and you'll feel tired or breathless and hard palpitations and all the rest. I could walk, but not very long.
SPEAKER_04I could get up and start some dinner, but I had to sit down. I could vacuum, but I had to sit down in between rooms. It was just fatigue.
SPEAKER_03Christmas came around, couldn't put up a tree, I mean I just I had no energy.
SPEAKER_05And not only were they fatigued, but they were going through this experience in isolation because it's so uncommon. Some statistics estimate that as few as one in a million people get diagnosed with it every year.
SPEAKER_02It's just so crazy that this is such a rare disease. Have you ever met another person with CAD? I have not.
SPEAKER_04I never have.
SPEAKER_03I don't know anybody personally like out on the street with it or anything.
SPEAKER_02I don't know anybody in my city here that has CAD. I feel like I'm just sort of doing this on my own.
SPEAKER_05So even though they had their hesitations about trying this treatment, it was the only drug on the market for their condition. Each of them felt they had nothing to lose by trying it out. It's the only approved drug, and I said, let's let's give it a try.
SPEAKER_04I received a call on Friday that they were getting the medication in, and I could get the drug on Tuesday. And it was a long Monday and a long weekend.
SPEAKER_05What were your biggest hopes going into the first infusion?
SPEAKER_03That it would work.
SPEAKER_05Gloria, a retired nurse practitioner, was excited but nervous when she got to the infusion center. She sat down, the nurse took her vitals, got her medicine ready, and set her up with an IV to be infused for the first time.
SPEAKER_03I was hyper-vigilant at my first infusion because I'd read about all the side effects and everything. And so I was like, the whole time it was infusing, I was like, oh, did I feel this? Maybe that was a maybe it's gonna do that. No, no, that's okay. What was that?
SPEAKER_05As she was being infused for the first time, she scanned her body for signs that anything was wrong. The drug Gloria was being infused with is called Njmo, or Sutimlamab Jome. Njimo is a prescription medicine used to treat the breakdown of red blood cells in adults with cold agglutinin disease. We'll share important safety information about it later in the episode. All the patients you'll hear from in this episode are actually living with cold agglutinin disease. Patients and physicians participating are being compensated by Sanafi for sharing their stories. I'll add, this podcast is not intended to give you medical advice. Each patient has a unique experience of this disease and how their body responds to treatment. In patients with CAD, a part of the immune system attacks and destroys red blood cells in a process called hemolysis. This leads to low hemoglobin levels, anemia, and fatigue. It would help raise their hemoglobin levels. That might help them feel less fatigued so they could get back to some of their usual activities.
SPEAKER_03I was just like, if I could get my hemoglobin up higher than what it was, I thought, oh, that would just that would be wonderful.
SPEAKER_02So I was very eager to go in. I must have told a half dozen people how excited I was that this was gonna be the answer to my problems.
SPEAKER_05So even though she was nervous, scanning her body for anything that might go wrong, Gloria decided that a chance to feel more like herself again was worth it.
SPEAKER_03But the whole process went off without a hitch.
SPEAKER_05The two-hour infusion went perfectly. Nancy's first infusion was smooth sailing too. She even got to see some familiar faces.
SPEAKER_04The day I went in, it was it was nice because I knew some of the nurses at the infusion center because they were affiliated with the hospital that I had spent so many years in the laboratory at. They had recliner chairs, and they brought me the warm blankets. Uh, they started uh IV on me, and it was an upbeat place.
SPEAKER_05Duffy was so excited about this first infusion, she wanted to make an event of it.
SPEAKER_02Oh, listen, honey, I brought cupcakes to the whole crew, and my girlfriend had baked chocolate chip cookies. It was right around Valentine's Day. I brought pink napkins and, you know, all those little chalky hearts on everything. And I I remember writing notes. I wrote handwritten notes to each one of I had three nurses that were with me that rotated, giving me my infusion. And I remember how excited they were. I mean, we were taking care of everybody that day, not just me. We we wanted to just have a celebratory moment, and we had a hell of a good time. Sounds like it was almost a little party. Yeah, absolutely. You know, everybody deserves that now and then. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_05Especially after what you've been through.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So I I had it was a two-hour infusion. You, you know, I waited for them to put all of the medication together, and then when they put it in my arm, I'm like, this is it, girls. This is it. It was it was one of those moments. I'll never forget it. Ever.
SPEAKER_05Their first infusions went smoothly, and now they had to wait and see if Njema would live up to their expectations, raise their hemoglobin levels, and hopefully bring them some relief from the weakness, fatigue, or breathlessness they'd been feeling. It's normal to be nervous about trying a treatment for the first time. Even doctors feel it.
SPEAKER_01I guess my fear is a hematologist when giving a drug, you really are hoping not to get the side effects. And I was hoping to not have an infusion reaction.
SPEAKER_05That's Dr. Trevor Feinstein, a hematologist oncologist at the Piedmont Cancer Institute in Atlanta, Georgia. In part one, he explained how NJMO works to stop the destruction of red blood cells, as well as how the trial that studied NJMO was designed. The NJMO trial was a randomized double-blind study in patients with CAD and no transfusion history. 22 patients were given NJMO and 20 patients given placebo, and neither the patients nor the doctors knew which each patient was given. The participants were infused on day zero, then infused again one week later, and then every two weeks after that. Researchers were looking for three main outcomes: increasing hemoglobin by at least one and a half grams, to not have any transfusions, and not use any other treatment for CAD. About 73% of patients on NGMO met all three endpoints, compared to 15% of patients on placebo. At the end of the study at week 26, patients taking NGMO had an average hemoglobin increase of 2.66 grams per deciliter compared to 0.09 grams per deciliter for those on the placebo. The study also saw a significant improvement in fatigue for patients taking NO as measured by the FACET Fatigue Score based on a 13-question survey. Scores for patients on NGMO improved by about 11 points, bringing their overall facet fatigue scores to the low 40s, which is kind of where an average person should be at. Patients taking placebo, meanwhile, had a two-point improvement. When Dr. Feinstein was going to give NGMO to a patient of his for the first time, he had his own worries about side effects and risks.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes you see kind of a runny nose, usually pretty mild. You can see some hypertension or high blood pressure, so you have to watch for that. Can see some people get some headaches with it. And then as a physician, you know what we like to keep an eye on is to make sure that someone doesn't have an infection because, you know, if someone's actively ill, we don't want to make their infection worse, so you always have to be careful on that.
SPEAKER_05And JMO increases the risk of certain infections, some of which can be serious or life-threatening, like meningitis, so he was sure to have his patient vaccinated along with the guidelines. Even though it came with these risks, his patient was interested in trying in JMO. Dr. Feinstein shared that before starting the treatment, his patient had been struggling. She had always loved going to the beach.
SPEAKER_01But it was the last time she went down. She said I wasn't able to enjoy myself. You know, she said someone stopped her and offered to help her with pulling the chair down to the beach. She said she felt much older than she was. And she said, that's not me.
SPEAKER_05So together, they decided she would try in JMO to see if it would help. I'm assuming not in your role as a doctor, but did you attend their first infusion?
SPEAKER_01As a doctor, you usually don't want me putting an IV in you to be doing the treatment. That's a bad day if I'm putting an IV in you. But uh, I mean, we do the infusion centers right next to where my office is.
SPEAKER_05Did you go check on them at all? Or when did you hear about how it was going or how it went?
SPEAKER_01I did just because I was curious. I mean, I didn't want to check too many times because then you get them worried going, why is he coming back here?
SPEAKER_05The infusion went as planned. And at follow-up visits, Dr. Feinstein could see his patient was improving.
SPEAKER_01I mean, this was a person who struggled to pull a chair or even go for a walk to shortly thereafter, now doing things that she wants to do, traveling and pretty much able to get back to who she wanted to be.
SPEAKER_05How did that feel for you as a doctor?
SPEAKER_01It's nice when you can see you can reverse things. Um we don't often get to do that in the world of hematology, but when you actually do find the right person to treat and get back to that, it's wonderful you for you and it's wonderful for the patient too.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I would imagine, especially if they've been suffering for a long time, how satisfying that must be for them and for you treating them.
SPEAKER_01And it's hard too, because this is a disease that usually affects often people in their 60s or 70s or even a little bit older. And a lot of patients kind of first assume this is just part of aging. I'm supposed to be tired, I'm supposed to be fatigued, and you know, I'm just slowing down. And then once you reverse that, it's like, wait, I'm not supposed to feel like this.
SPEAKER_05Duffy, Gloria, and Nancy were about to realize exactly that. They weren't supposed to feel how they'd been feeling. And after going on in JMO, each of them had these moments where suddenly they noticed something had changed. Like when Nancy was cleaning.
SPEAKER_04I was doing some vacuuming in my house, and all of a sudden I just kind of stopped and said, wait a minute, I'm not stopping. I didn't have to stop. I've done half the house.
SPEAKER_05Gloria, do you remember any specific moments where you kind of noticed, hey, I'm feeling better doing this?
SPEAKER_03Well, taking my dog for a walk, and all of a sudden getting to the top of their little hill, going, I'm not been over double trying to catch my breath.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you're kind of looking around like, Oh yeah, ooh, me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah. I know. So stuff like that, I mean, all of a sudden it would just be like, oh, I used to do this, and now I'm doing it again.
SPEAKER_05With each new infusion, each of them got better and better.
SPEAKER_03It was like I could go in without even knowing what the number was. And when the doctor said, How are you doing? I'm really doing good.
SPEAKER_05They found themselves returning to their old activities and to their old selves. For Nancy, the thing she had missed most when she was struggling with CAD was her annual family fishing trip.
SPEAKER_04All of a sudden I was able to reel those fish in again. That was fun. It's calm in the morning and and the sun is coming up, and you're sitting there waiting, and all of a sudden one of those rods just and uh you know you got one on, and to bring a kingfish in, oh, is an experience you'll never forget. Those fish fight so much and they really give you a thrill. That must have felt good. Yeah, I was back to the old Nancy. I recognized that person. And I was happy to be her again.
SPEAKER_05Gloria felt good enough to travel to New Zealand to visit her son and his family.
SPEAKER_03That was so funny because my son and his wife had not seen me since I started NJMO. So my son's last impression of me was having to rest all the time and not as energetic as I used to be. I think he saw me as mom's getting really old and frail now. Well, then I go out to New Zealand, and of course I've been on NJMO by I want to say about nine months at that time. And we were walking to this restaurant, and I'm just walking along, and all of a sudden I look and I'm all by myself, and I turn around and they're several feet behind me. And I said, Oh, I said, I'm sorry. And Tony goes, Did you think we were speed walking or something? He said, You're just booking it, mom. And he was really excited and happy for me to see that I had so much energy. I just walked off and left him.
SPEAKER_05Duffy says the change has been meaningful and she's committed to staying on in JMO.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know what, Ailen? I have made a commitment to getting in JMO because it makes me feel like myself again. I mean, I feel like I'm a young 70-year-old who wants to continue to live life exercising, being with my grandkids, being with my children, my husband, and my life depends upon wanting all of that. And that's just in my head about how significant it is to me to make sure I'm regular with this, whatever it takes.
SPEAKER_05So much had changed for them, but one thing remained the same. They were walking this path alone. While they'd all been through a frightening diagnosis process, difficulty coping with CAD, and then an exciting comeback, they had still never met another person with CAD.
SPEAKER_04I have not.
SPEAKER_02I never have. I feel like I'm just sort of doing this on my own.
SPEAKER_03It would just be nice to be around somebody who knows what you've been through.
SPEAKER_05And that's one part of the CAD experience that Njemo can't fix.
SPEAKER_03Hi, can y'all hear me? Hi. Hi, Gloria.
SPEAKER_05Yes. So Gloria, Duffy, and Nancy finally connected on a video call.
SPEAKER_02Oh, hey Duffy! How are you doing? I'm doing fine. Thank you.
SPEAKER_05Before this, they hadn't met each other, but they knew each other by name. Hi, Duffy. Hi. That's how small the community of patients with CAD, or caddies, as they call themselves, really is.
SPEAKER_04I've never directly spoken or had an interaction with another patient.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I haven't met very many people. Everybody seems to be down south and in warm cities. Yeah. Right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you need to move down here, Duffy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's a little warmer there. I'm ready for spring. I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_03Yes, I am. I could even tolerate summer. I love summer.
SPEAKER_05Me too.
SPEAKER_02I think most of us caddies do.
SPEAKER_05Yes. Before long, they were swapping stories about their diagnosis and their struggles.
SPEAKER_02How long ago were you diagnosed with CAD?
SPEAKER_03Um, March of 2021.
SPEAKER_02Oh, so you're even more recent than me.
SPEAKER_03But it was very frustrating to suddenly go from being so active and getting my housework done to feeling like I was a caterpillar.
SPEAKER_02A caterpillar. That's a great way to describe it. I used to call it slug. I was a slug. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Inchworm. That's what comes to mind for me. I'm a mover. And I couldn't do it anymore. And you know, I didn't have a sign on my forehead that said, I have a CAD. Um they couldn't see that I was suffering inside. I couldn't help my friends. Yeah. I couldn't fix the meals anymore to take to friends that needed a lift.
SPEAKER_02Like Nancy said, we don't look ill. Right. Um, and I had a really challenging time trying to explain that to friends. They just didn't get it. And it's like the invisible disease. Yeah. It was awful.
SPEAKER_04Add to that, our disease is so rare. Yes. I've I've never talked with anybody to this extent that had CAD. Right. I don't know if I think Duffy, you're on in JMO, but I don't know, Gloria, if are you on NJ MO?
SPEAKER_03Started in April of 22.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm. I got on this on in JMO. My energy was back and I was back to myself. Thank God. Mm-hmm. Gloria, how about you?
SPEAKER_03Getting my energy back and being able to do all the stuff I used to do, it was so freeing.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_03You know, you suddenly feel like, okay, I can live. You know, I make myself remember what it used to be like when you couldn't do this so easily.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Because I'll find myself just doing it matter of course, and I don't ever want to take it for granted again.
SPEAKER_05Good point. Good point. They talked about how living with CAD has helped them understand other people better.
SPEAKER_04I think that I'm a little more compassionate to people than I might have been before. I'm more understanding that that people have these diseases that limit their ability to do things.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I I had never experienced that before. Yeah. Because I know what it really feels like.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. That totally resonates for me. Does it good? Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_03I used to be one of those people that if people said, Oh, they couldn't do that, I'd be in my mind, I'd be thinking, Oh yes, they could. Just try. You know, yeah. So the concept of no energy just really didn't make sense to me because mind over matter, you can do it. Yes. Now it's like somebody says they don't have any energy. I said, Fine, let's sit down here and we can just talk here.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Now you really understand.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And how their experience with CAD has taught them how important it is for anyone to speak up for themselves and be their own advocate.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, I feel sad for people that aren't advocating for themselves and getting the right kind of treatment. Yeah. I just feel very lucky to know the two of you now that have had such success with NJMO, like I have. It's nice to know and connect with you.
SPEAKER_04I would not have gotten it had I not been more of an advocate for myself. And my my hematologist here didn't really know about the CAD studies. And I asked for a second opinion. Good for you. And the doctor up there, he gave me hope.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You know, the word that you said is hope. Yeah. I think the three of us are great examples of people that had their own advocacy and hope for a better life. And here we are, living it. Right?
SPEAKER_05Yes. I'm curious, Nancy. You mentioned I've never talked to anyone else with CAD to this extent before. What is this like to talk to each other? Oh gosh, this is fun.
SPEAKER_04Um, you know, um, you know what I'm talking about. Nobody ever knows what I'm talking about. They have not experienced that feeling of, my God, I can't do that anymore.
SPEAKER_03It's nice to talk to people that you know automatically understand. You don't have to be explaining. They automatically understand where you're coming from, whether they have that exact symptom or not, they know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I think it's very important for this type of interaction. This is my community as other people that have it, and I've haven't had that before today. I think of you guys as my community now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I feel like I got buddies.
SPEAKER_02There you go.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, I have Gloria's email. Now I want yours so we can chit-chat offline.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. Can I give you all my email? Yes. I'll email you mine. How's it? Okay. That's perfect. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02That's great.
SPEAKER_05They're feeling more connected and more like themselves again. But as Dr. Feinstein explained, it's crucial that they stay on the infusion schedule to continue to feel that effect.
SPEAKER_01Once you start the treatment, you can't stop the treatment. You need to keep it going. It's every two weeks. And if there's delays, you know, someone misses a treatment, you have to restart the treatment over again.
SPEAKER_05But as Nancy, Gloria, and Duffy say, spending a few hours every two weeks to get infused is well worth it.
SPEAKER_03And it's funny, even now, I'll tell my mother, well, come up and stay with you for about a week as soon as I get my infusion. And she goes, Oh no, honey, don't wear yourself out. And I said, uh, I'm not wearing myself out. I said, I'm looking at my infusion time as enforced rest. I can't be doing housework. I have to sit there and read. So I get out of there, I feel fine. I really can't do anything in the infusion center. So if I didn't sleep well the night before, I tell myself, oh, that's okay, you can take a nap while you're getting your infusion.
SPEAKER_04It's easy. I go in, I say hi to the folks that have now become almost friends. They take my vitals, they take my blood pressure, then I have an IV started on me. And uh I just sit there and relax and talk with people. I talk on my phone, I play games on my phone, I read a book, I continue doing whatever I want while it slowly infuses. And when it finishes after an hour, then I am observed for a while and then I head home. And I'm not feeling bad. Uh I I could go to the store after that.
SPEAKER_03I'll just plan on doing some errands after I get my infusion. Like go grocery shopping, go clothes shopping. I mean, I'll do about three or four things. And my mother the other day I was telling her, she called and said, Well, how'd your infusion go? I said, Oh, Mom, it went great. I said, um, I had to run some errands. I went by the bank and then I went here and I went there and oh, and I went to the library. You know, and I was and she goes, Oh, I'm just exhausted listening to you. And I thought, that's the way I used to be. Somebody tell me they got up out of bed that morning, I'd be like, Oh, how did they do that? You know.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Now you're the person doing it all again.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and so I feel like I feel like my old self.
SPEAKER_05It's become a normal part of their routines.
SPEAKER_02So for me, uh accommodating in JMO in my life with every two weeks getting an infusion is routine now. It's easy for me compared to living with Kat. It doesn't slow me down if I am going on a long trip somewhere, which we are in March. My nurse is so accommodating. She's coming the day we land to give me my infusion. And I get an infusion the day before we leave for the vacation. It's just you make it work.
SPEAKER_05And for Duffy, it has one more layer of normalcy.
SPEAKER_02Listen, I think Lori's here, so let me go let her in.
SPEAKER_05Every two weeks, her nurse, Lori, shows up and sets up Duffy to get infused in her own home.
unknownLori here?
SPEAKER_02Yes now. There's Lori! Hi! When Lori arrives, I'm usually baking bread or cooking dinner early. And uh I'm gonna send her home tonight. I I got up this morning before I worked out and made uh spicy chili. So I'm gonna send her home with chili. Ooh, sounds good. You gotta take care of people. They're taking care of me, right? So the last time she was here, I was making bread. So we have a lot of fun together. That's great. I don't know. Would you say that, Lori? Do we have fun together? We do? Okay. You know, life is short, you gotta live it. Oh, yeah. I'm beeping pump is going off. That means I'm done. Oh wow. How about that?
SPEAKER_05After two hours, Duffy's infusion is done. And so is Comebacks from the Cold, a two-part series about how Njmo is used to treat cold agglutin and disease. Talking to Duffy, Gloria, Nancy, and Dr. Feinstein showed me that treating a rare disease like CAD is a big task. But in talking with each of them, I felt their joy to see the sparkle in their eyes as they talk about feeling less of the fatigue that kept them away from their social lives, or feeling more like themselves again. CAD took so much from them for so long. It's meaningful for these patients with their rare disease to have a drug designed specifically to treat their condition, and for CAD to be getting the attention it deserves. It's been so uplifting to hear about their journeys, from struggling with mysterious symptoms to finally getting diagnosed and coping, then taking charge of their health and learning to advocate for themselves. I know their stories will stick with me. If you're interested in learning more about this topic, check out another series called Break in a Cold Case. But first, please listen to some important safety information about NJMO.
SPEAKER_00NJMO Consumer Indication and Important Safety Information. Indication. NJMO is a prescription medication used to treat the breakdown of red blood cellsis in adults with cold agglutinin disease. It is not known if NO is safe and effective in children. Important safety information. Do not receive NJMO if you are allergic to Cetimlomabjome or any of the ingredients in NJMO. NJMO can cause serious side effects, including serious infections. NJMO is a prescription medication that affects your immune system. NGMO may lower the ability of your immune system to fight infections. NGMO increases your chance of getting serious infections, including those caused by encapsulated bacteria, including Neisseria meningitis, streptococcus pneumonia, and hemophilus influenza type B. These serious infections may quickly become life-threatening or cause death if not recognized and treated early. You must be complete or be up to date with your vaccines against Streptococcus pneumonia and Neisseria meningitis at least two weeks before your first dose of NJMO. If your healthcare provider decides that urgent treatment with NJMO is needed, you should receive vaccinations as soon as possible. If you have been vaccinated against these bacteria in the past, you might need additional vaccines before starting NGMO. Your healthcare provider will decide if you need additional vaccines. Vaccines do not prevent all infections caused by encapsulated bacteria. Call your healthcare provider or get emergency medical care right away if you get any of these signs and symptoms of a serious infection, fever with or without shivers or chills, fever with chest pain and cough, fever with high heart rate, headache and fever, confusion, clammy skin, fever and a rash, fever with breathlessness or fast breathing, headache with nausea or vomiting, headache with stiff neck or stiff back, body aches with flu-like symptoms, eyes sensitive to light, infusion-related reactions. Treatment with NGMO may cause infusion-related reactions, including allergic reactions that may be serious or life-threatening. Your healthcare provider may slow down or stop your NGMO infusion if you have an infusion-related reaction and will treat your symptoms if needed. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you develop symptoms during your NGMO infusion that may mean you are having an infusion-related reaction, including shortness of breath, decrease in blood pressure, chest discomfort, rapid heart rate, nausea, injection site reaction, flushing, headache, dizziness, rash, itchy skin, risk of autoimmune disease. In JMO may increase your risk for developing an autoimmune disease, such as systemic lupus arythumatosis, SLE. Tell your healthcare provider and get medical help if you develop any symptoms of SLE, including joint pain or swelling, rash on the cheeks and nose, unexplained fever. If you have CAD and you stop receiving NJMO, your healthcare provider should monitor you closely for the return of your symptoms after you stop NJMO. Stopping NJMO may cause the breakdown of your red blood cells due to CAD return. Symptoms or problems that can happen due to red blood cell breakdown include tiredness, shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, blood in your urine, or dark urine. The most common side effects of NJMO include increase in blood pressure, urinary tract infection, respiratory tract infection, bacterial infection, swelling in lower legs or hands, joint pain, headache, nausea, runny nose, bluish color to the lips and skin, dizziness, feeling tired or weak, cough, changes in color or sensation in the fingers and toes, rainodes phenomenon. These are not all the possible side effects of NJMO. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. Before receiving NJMO, tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you have a fever or infection, including a history of human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C. Have an autoimmune disease such as systemic lupus arythumatosis, SLE, also known as lupus. Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant? It is not known if NGMO will harm your newborn baby. Are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed? It is not known if NGMO passes into your breast milk. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medications you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Know the medications you take. Keep a list of them to show your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine. Please see accompanying, full prescribing information, including medication guide.
SPEAKER_05I'm Ailen Lance Lesser, and this has been Comebacks from the Cold, a podcast from Sanafi.