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Ask HN: Does anyone have experience with GS-441524?

12 points by braingenious ↗ HN
My friend’s cat was diagnosed with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) today and he asked me to do some research about it.

I have seen some conflicting information about it, namely one site will say “There is no treatment and it is universally fatal” and another site says “It’s actually curable, you just need to buy this non-FDA approved compound and administer it yourself.”

I’ve also seen its sourcing being described as “black market” which is quite confusing. Does this mean this stuff is illegal (in the US)? If it is legal, is there a good way to figure out if a supplier is legitimate?

If there is in fact a safe and viable cure to an otherwise fatal disease in cats, I find it mind boggling that it doesn’t appear to be readily available to veterinarians.

7 comments

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davidmargolin
Yes! GS/Mutian/etc. saved our kitty! she was diagnosed with FIP and the emergency vet said we should put her down. Took her home to say goodbye and did some more research. A few Facebook groups and about 12 hours and we had a couple of vials.

The injections are horrible to administer and use a super large needle that really hurts the cats but it's worth it. We transitioned to pills after about a month when we saw that the meds were clearly working and she wasn't on the brink of death.

She's still with us today. Absolutely destroying our furniture.

such a shame GS can't be prescribed

braingenious
Thanks for sharing! I am so glad your cat is alive and healthy!

I haven’t heard about Mutian or oral GS, I will look into that further. As for Facebook groups, in my initial search I also found a bunch of Facebook groups. I pointed him at a couple “FIP Warriors” private groups, but I don’t have facebook myself and can’t verify that they’re legit.

Ideally, I’d just like to link him to a legitimate source to buy from because the poor guy is understandably freaking out. The unclear writing about the legality of this stuff (which I would REALLY like to nail down) might preclude somebody posting that information publicly though.

Luckily he is a physician so hopefully that will make giving his cat injections a bit easier, though I don’t think they teach you how to give a 6 month old kitten a subcutaneous shot in medical school!

davidmargolin
AFAICT it's not legal. There was a single (successful!) study done but the drug was never put up for approval as a veterinary medicine. I believe they were looking to use it for humans and it got stuck in limbo there.

That said, many vets will still source and administer it. Our vet (not the initial emergency vet mentioned above) was very supportive.

This is a really good article covering the details: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/remdesiv...

throwaway230482
I have had a similar experience. We started with injections, which were very difficult, and switched to pills eventually. It was a difficult and expensive process, but totally worth it. My cat was very nearly dead, and now he is healthier than ever. You would never know he was sick.

I went through the FIP Warriors 5.0 Facebook group. They are legit, and they do much more than help you find the medicine. They support you through the whole process.

afarrell
Probably. It seems like something a veterinarian would know about.

This is a question of whom you trust more:

A. Random websites who have something to sell.

B. Random strangers spending spare moments of attention on a website about startups and software engineering.

C. Someone local to you who spent years in veterinary school and is now spending focused time in-person to care for a particular cat.

braingenious
The immediate issue that I’ve run into (and the reason for this post) is the veterinarian specifically not having the desire/ability to administer this stuff due to regulatory issues. The topic of this post is a drug that cures a fatal disease that is by definition not available from veterinarians.