L. Kunst MD and the development of a medicine for psoriasis
Dr Kunst's "drive" to help patients with chronic conditions lead to the development of a medicine to help patients with chronic psoriasis. He did this in collaboration with a pharmacist working in Helmond, the Netherlands and by applying knowledge gained and published by W. Schweckendieck.
Dr. Kunst had seen the clinical benefits of dimethylfumarate (DMF), the discovery by Dr W. Schweckendieck. DMF had been brought to the Netherlands by Dr van Dijk, but this version of it had debilitating effects on the patients' digestive system.
In 1985 together with the pharmacist, Dr Durlinger, Dr Kunst developed a version of a DMF-pill that had a slow release mechanism (in the new terminology now mentioned as extended release), as a result, the irritating substance is slowly be distributed in the whole of the intestinal tract, diminishing it's corrosive effect. This has the advantage that many more patients can withstand the side-effects of DMF.
This version of the medicine was named Psorinovo, and was made and distributed by Mierlo-Hout pharrmacy, currently called Infinity Pharma. It has been in use to treat thousands of patients with an effectivity of around 70%. More about this medication and its development can be viewed on the website of Psoriasispatiënten Nederland, the official website of the Psoriasis Patients Support Group in the Netherlands.
Dr Kunst was recently interviewed by Psoriasis Magazine, the official publication for Psoriasispatiënten Nederland. The resulting article can be downloaded here. [An English version will be added soon].
NB Several patients with psoriasis have since been successfully treated with the autovaccine therapy. This fact makes it likely that there is a microbiological causal factor related to this condition.