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Cutting the ribbon, from left, on the new ALS Center in spring 2023 are: Brian Walch, vice president of clinical operations, Jersey Shore University Medical Center; Jeff Cline, executive director, ALS Association; Steve Spaulding, director of care services, ALSA Greater Philadelphia Chapter; Dr. Mary Sedarous, ALS Center medical director; Ellen Anne Gall, ALS Center; Dr. Alan Colicchio, chair of neurology, JSUMC, and medical director, Neuroscience Care Transformation Service, Hackensack Meridian Health, Southern Market; and Kathy Valentino, social worker with the Joan Dancy and PALS Foundation. - HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH
Cutting the ribbon, from left, on the new ALS Center in spring 2023 are: Brian Walch, vice president of clinical operations, Jersey Shore University Medical Center; Jeff Cline, executive director, ALS Association; Steve Spaulding, director of care services, ALSA Greater Philadelphia Chapter; Dr. Mary Sedarous, ALS Center medical director; Ellen Anne Gall, ALS Center; Dr. Alan Colicchio, chair of neurology, JSUMC, and medical director, Neuroscience Care Transformation Service, Hackensack Meridian Health, Southern Market; and Kathy Valentino, social worker with the Joan Dancy and PALS Foundation. - HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH
Hackensack Meridian’s ALS Center offers new treatment
Dawn Furnas//June 15, 2023//
The ALS Center at the Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at Jersey Shore University Medical Center announced June 14 that it’s the first center in New Jersey to provide patients with a treatment to target a genetic cause of the disease.
In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Qalsody (tofersen) injection for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in adults who have a mutation in the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) gene.
According to the FDA, “SOD1-ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks and kills the nerve cells that control voluntary muscles.” The Jersey Shore center said ALS – also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease – often leads to total paralysis and death within two to five years of diagnosis.
Dr. Mary Sedarous, medical director of the ALS Center in Neptune, said she was “excited at what the future of these [Qalsody] treatments may hold for our ALS community.”
“Since SOD1 mutations were identified as the cause of ALS years ago, the medical community has been searching for effective, genetically targeted treatments,” Sedarous said in a statement. “Patients who participated in the clinical study of QALSODY experienced a reduction in the concentrations of SOD1 in the CSF and clinically also experienced a reduction in the decline of strength.”
Before this spring, the ALS Center offered its services – such as physical and speech therapy, nutrition consultation and physician assessment – in multiple locations. In April, Hackensack Meridian announced those services were now consolidated in the new Dr. Robert H. Harris Neuroscience Treatment Center – a $2.2 million facility that opened in January.
The facility is one of only two ALS Certified Treatment Centers of Excellence in New Jersey; the other is at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick.
Individuals with an ALS diagnosis who are interested in Qalsody treatment may call 732-776-3307.
