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Monday"Acorda Drug Helps MS Patients in Walking; Shares Soar..CLICK FOR MORE Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of Acorda Therapeutics Inc. more than tripled after the company said its experimental Fampridine drug helped people with multiple sclerosis walk faster. Patients who took Fampridine-SR moved 25 percent faster on average during a timed 25-foot walk, while patients getting a placebo improved 4.7 percent, Hawthorne, New York-based Acorda said today. Patients on the drug also had increased leg strength, even those who didn't show improvement in walking. Chief Executive Officer Ron Cohen said the company believes it met all three criteria the U.S. Food and Drug Administration set to establish that the drug works and plans to meet with the agency as soon as possible. About 80 percent of the 400,000 Americans with multiple sclerosis have some trouble walking, according to the company. ``It's a drug to help improve the symptoms of MS, and there's not any other product labeled to help with walking disability,'' said Philip Nadeau, an analyst with Cowen & Co. in New York, in a telephone interview. ``It will be complementary to everything that's out there right now..... |