Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has rubbished a newspaper report which claimed there is shortage of the drug Beta Interferon, used to treat patients suffering with Multiple Sclerosis.

He was responding to a question posed by Opposition Senator Wade Mark in the Senate on Tuesday afternoon.

“I am so grateful for this opportunity to correct the public record. There is no stock-out of any drug in the public healthcare system to treat Multiple Sclerosis. The report in today’s newspaper is inaccurate,” he said.

He continued: “That we got in stocks in mid-December, 600 syringes and more are expected in January.”

But more than this, the Minister said the Health Ministry is also using a new improved tablet to treat MS, Fingolimod, which has a 50% efficacy rate compared to Beta Interferon’s 30%.

The Minister’s response prompted UNC Senator Anil Roberts to question why the ministry was getting more syringes of the older Beta Interferon drug this month if it was “useless.”

Deyalsingh replied, “Useless?You cannot transition a patient from one drug to another at the drop of a hat! You have to manage the progression of the disease and if they respond to the newer better drug, then you transition them – so your question as posed shows an acute lack of knowledge as to how drugs work and of the clinical protocols that determine how a doctor uses a drug.”