IRVING, Texas — The FDA approved a new drug to help treat patients with ALS, and DFW patients are eager to get their hands on it.
"My expiration date is coming up sooner than everyone else's," Irving's Andrew Szabo told WFAA of his diagnosis. "We're talking about a death sentence here."
Szabo was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, in 2021. The progressive neurodegenerative disease is fatal. Most patients only live for two to five years after a diagnosis.
Federal regulators believe the new drug, Relyvrio, will slow the disease's progression and prolong patients' lives.
"If you can give somebody that extra year...the ability to see a child born, a grandchild born, a wedding...you're giving ALS patients hope when they're facing death," Szabo said. "In the past, there was no hope for ALS patients. And they said for the first time, there is actually hope."
The drug has its critics. There is doubt among certain medical circles that Relyvrio's trial was completed too fast and in too small a scope.
But Szabo and his wife, Melissa, believe the drug needed to come online as soon as it did.
"It's hard to think about a future with him...that is probably my hardest thing to overcome," Melissa said.
Andrew told WFAA, no matter how much time he has left, he will "finish strong."
He and Melissa are headed on an international trip in just a few weeks.
"He's still amazing," Melissa said. "Even with ALS."
The drug is expected to be available to patients in a few weeks.