FIP Is Treatable Now?

[saleri]

Hi,

I was reading some posts here and I saw some people are saying there is now a treatment for FIP? Is this for both dry and wet?

I looked online and I see people say it's expensive, but it works. What is the treatment called? Is it available in most places?

 

[stephanietx]

It is treatable. The medication is called Mutian. Mutian

 

[saleri]

It is treatable. The medication is called Mutian. Mutian

Okay the one I read was called freecat. Has there being any studies to see how effective it is? For dry and wet fip?

 

[stephanietx]

I don't know, but I know cats who have survived FIP after being treated. It's a long treatment time and expensive, but it is available and it appears to work.

 

[kittenmittens84]

Okay the one I read was called freecat. Has there being any studies to see how effective it is? For dry and wet fip?

Mutian is the brand name of one of the companies that makes it, the drug itself is a targeted antiviral (actually a prodrug of remdesivir, the covid drug) called GS-441524. It appears to be effective against all types of FIP, although neurological and ocular involvement requires higher doses.

Here’s an early study of 31 cats: SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class research journals

Here’s an article about two researchers collecting data on cats who have completed the treatment: Researchers study crowdsourced cure for deadly cat disease (my cat is one of the data points )

 

[MissClouseau]

There are a whole lot of fundraisers in Turkey to raise money for the treatment. Based on seeing them, GS-441524 works well on some cats, not on some others. Like I know some cats who are still doing well 2 years after the treatment. But also some cats who passed in the middle of the treatment.

While at it, always good to support those fundraisers as much as we can. The treatment is still expensive for everyone but with the currency rate and international shipping HELLA expensive for economies like Turkey or worse. (Currently 1 USD = 7,50 Turkish lira. The FIP treatment costs literally tens of thousands.)

 

[saleri]

Mutian is the brand name of one of the companies that makes it, the drug itself is a targeted antiviral (actually a prodrug of remdesivir, the covid drug) called GS-441524. It appears to be effective against all types of FIP, although neurological and ocular involvement requires higher doses.

Here’s an early study of 31 cats: SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class research journals

Here’s an article about two researchers collecting data on cats who have completed the treatment: Researchers study crowdsourced cure for deadly cat disease (my cat is one of the data points )

I see Mutian has some sort of guarantee? How does that work exactly? What is the successful recovery rate?

 

[kittenmittens84]

I see Mutian has some sort of guarantee? How does that work exactly? What is the successful recovery rate?

They guarantee that if you use a whole course of their product and the disease comes back, they’ll give you the second round of medication for free. The flip side is theirs is significantly more expensive than the other manufacturers of the drug, and the “guarantee” has lots of exceptions and stipulations and rules. Someone I know used mutian, followed all the rules for the guarantee, her cat relapsed after the first round, and they sent medication for a second shorter course at a higher dose for free. A year later her cat is still fine so I guess the higher dose worked.

I was a member of the original group mentioned in that VIN article and just from what I observed, most of the cats that did not make it tended to be very sick when they started the treatment and would pass away or need to be put to sleep within the first week. That’s also consistent with what happened in the study I linked above, the cats that died had advanced neurological symptoms (the dosage used now is also higher than what was used in the study.) The vet researchers at UC Davis have said that some cats appear to randomly have natural resistance to GS, but that it’s very rare.

It’s difficult to determine the efficacy numbers because there are so few controlled studies, but as far as I’m aware none of the cats who were alive at the end of that UC Davis study have died of FIP which would put it at around 80% success I believe? Anecdotally, the rate of success seems to be measurably higher the earlier the drug is started (aka when the FIP isn’t as advanced) - it seemed like if a cat made it through the first 2 weeks of GS, generally after that they’d live.

Hopefully we will be able to get more valuable data when the study mentioned in that article is published. It’s amazing that so many people have been taking part in what’s essentially a giant citizen science effort (I think it would be fair to say that at this point at least 10,000 cats worldwide have been treated with GS), but one huge downside of that is the lack of good data collection and how difficult it is to do. The experts who study this stuff seem to be confident that the GS compound is definitely effective at eliminating FIPV (the virus), what still needs to be worked out is things like dosing, length of treatment, how to evaluate candidates for treatment, potential side effects, what form of the drug is most efficacious, etc.

 

[stephanietx]

There is also Capella which is a version of the GS medicines that are out there to help fight this disease. If you're on FB, there's a FIP Warriors group with more information.

 

[kittenmittens84]

There is also Capella which is a version of the GS medicines that are out there to help fight this disease. If you're on FB, there's a FIP Warriors group with more information.

I believe capella is also considered one of the best brands of GS, there’s a group of vets in Hong Kong who’ve been evaluating different versions of the drug and testing them in a lab as a kind of quality control check and that’s one of their top recommendations. It’s also 1/4 the cost of mutian. The site fip slayer has good info, in case anyone comes across this post later and wants to learn more.

 

[stephanietx]

No treatment is 100% foolproof or guaranteed to work and there's always a kitty will pass during treatment or before treatment can be started. That's true for any kind of illness.

 

[She's a witch]

I fail to understand why this drug is so expensive. I mean, how much did it cost to come up with it and how much does it cost to produce it? I find it soo unethical.

 

[saleri]

I believe capella is also considered one of the best brands of GS, there’s a group of vets in Hong Kong who’ve been evaluating different versions of the drug and testing them in a lab as a kind of quality control check and that’s one of their top recommendations. It’s also 1/4 the cost of mutian. The site fip slayer has good info, in case anyone comes across this post later and wants to learn more.

Has there being any effort to get this fda approved, so regular vets can recommend it?

 

[kittenmittens84]

Has there being any effort to get this fda approved, so regular vets can recommend it?

Yes. Gilead Sciences (the company that makes remdesivir) owns the patent on the drug, and they originally gave permission for it to be used in FIP research trials. It’s my understanding that after the trials were completed they declined to let another company pursue drug development and approval because they were hopeful that it could find a use as a treatment for Ebola in humans and thus wanted to keep sitting on the patent. Unfortunately Gilead has no interest in creating and selling a veterinary drug.
There’s some hope that with remdesivir being used as a treatment for covid, that could be an avenue to approval for an FIP treatment since remdesivir breaks down into GS 441 in the body, but remdesivir is more expensive and hasn’t been tested against FIP so who knows. It’s very frustrating.

 

[MissClouseau]

Yes. Gilead Sciences (the company that makes remdesivir) owns the patent on the drug, and they originally gave permission for it to be used in FIP research trials. It’s my understanding that after the trials were completed they declined to let another company pursue drug development and approval because they were hopeful that it could find a use as a treatment for Ebola in humans and thus wanted to keep sitting on the patent. Unfortunately Gilead has no interest in creating and selling a veterinary drug.
There’s some hope that with remdesivir being used as a treatment for covid, that could be an avenue to approval for an FIP treatment since remdesivir breaks down into GS 441 in the body, but remdesivir is more expensive and hasn’t been tested against FIP so who knows. It’s very frustrating.

I heard something similar as well. I just checked and Gilead is an American company in California. I'll say let's all email them, encourage others to email them, and make our requests on their social media accounts publicly too. This is the age of "companies do the right thing only when they get publicly asked (or shamed, if they are at fault)" unfortunately, with some companies.

 

[saleri]

Mutian is the brand name of one of the companies that makes it, the drug itself is a targeted antiviral (actually a prodrug of remdesivir, the covid drug) called GS-441524. It appears to be effective against all types of FIP, although neurological and ocular involvement requires higher doses.

Here’s an early study of 31 cats: SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class research journals

Here’s an article about two researchers collecting data on cats who have completed the treatment: Researchers study crowdsourced cure for deadly cat disease (my cat is one of the data points )

Are there anymore studies like this out there? Just really interested to read this.

Also I see a lot of people say it's super expensive, how much does it usually take to treat a cat with Mutian or any other from start to finish usually?

 

[kittenmittens84]

Are there anymore studies like this out there? Just really interested to read this.

Also I see a lot of people say it's super expensive, how much does it usually take to treat a cat with Mutian or any other from start to finish usually?

Here is one with 4 case studies of cats with advanced neurological FIP treated with higher doses: https://escholarship.org/content/qt7zf776c2/qt7zf776c2.pdf?t=qeu55m&v=lg

For cost, it varies wildly because of 3 things: the cat’s weight (the dose is based on weight), type of FIP (neurological/ocular symptoms need a higher dose), and the brand. For regular wet or dry FIP, if your cat weighed 5-6 lbs at the start, gained a pound a month, and you used one of the cheaper suppliers, probably $1500 for 12 weeks of medicine? The same cat treated w/mutian would be more than $6000 iirc

 

[saleri]

Here is one with 4 case studies of cats with advanced neurological FIP treated with higher doses: https://escholarship.org/content/qt7zf776c2/qt7zf776c2.pdf?t=qeu55m&v=lg

For cost, it varies wildly because of 3 things: the cat’s weight (the dose is based on weight), type of FIP (neurological/ocular symptoms need a higher dose), and the brand. For regular wet or dry FIP, if your cat weighed 5-6 lbs at the start, gained a pound a month, and you used one of the cheaper suppliers, probably $1500 for 12 weeks of medicine? The same cat treated w/mutian would be more than $6000 iirc

Okay wow, I thought it would be max $1,200. $6,000 is insane.

Honestly not familiar at all with neurological/Ocular fip. I thought it was just dry fip or wet fip and that was it.

 

[kittenmittens84]

Okay wow, I thought it would be max $1,200. $6,000 is insane.

Honestly not familiar at all with neurological/Ocular fip. I thought it was just dry fip or wet fip and that was it.

Yes if the virus crosses the blood brain barrier or gets into the eyes it can cause cloudy/red irises, blindness, balance problems, and back leg weakness/paralysis. I think I read somewhere that it’s the most common cause of neurological problems in cats younger than 2, but it doesn’t often come to mind as a diagnosis when cats have those symptoms because most of the focus is on the “classic” symptoms like the fluid build up and fever. My sister is a vet and we learned a lot about FIP together after my cat was diagnosed!

 

[saleri]

Yes if the virus crosses the blood brain barrier or gets into the eyes it can cause cloudy/red irises, blindness, balance problems, and back leg weakness/paralysis. I think I read somewhere that it’s the most common cause of neurological problems in cats younger than 2, but it doesn’t often come to mind as a diagnosis when cats have those symptoms because most of the focus is on the “classic” symptoms like the fluid build up and fever. My sister is a vet and we learned a lot about FIP together after my cat was diagnosed!

So does Neurological/ocular fip mostly happen in younger cats? I believe most older cats past 2+ of age only get dry fip and not wet? Not sure if that's true though.