{"id":259830,"date":"2025-11-03T23:39:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T23:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/259830\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T23:39:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T23:39:06","slug":"pennsylvania-man-says-experimental-drug-has-helped-him-recover-from-cycling-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/259830\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania man says experimental drug has helped him recover from cycling accident"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An <a href=\"https:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\/study\/NCT05965700?term=NervGen&amp;rank=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">experimental drug could help improve movement<\/a> for patients with spinal cord injuries, and it&#8217;s already making a big difference for one patient in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>Larry Williams is walking, something he thought wouldn&#8217;t be possible after breaking his neck in a cycling accident three years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Panic, despair, depression, anxiety \u2014 I couldn&#8217;t do anything,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;I had no strength to even roll over in bed.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He wasn&#8217;t sure how much he would recover.<\/p>\n<p>Wanting his life back, Williams decided to join a clinical trial in Chicago over the summer to test an experimental drug. He received one injection every day for three months.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The experimental drug made by NervGen Pharma is an injectable peptide that&#8217;s supposed to help repair nerve connections disrupted by a spinal cord injury.<\/p>\n<p>Monica Perez, of the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab at Northwestern University, is the lead investigator. She said she tested 20 patients with chronic incomplete cervical spinal cord injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Early results are positive, she said, and she&#8217;s hoping for more approvals from the FDA.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re super excited,&#8221; Perez said.<\/p>\n<p>Williams, who&#8217;s able to work out now, said he quickly felt a difference after the injections.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The walking became easier. I felt stronger,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I got more confident, and I just kept pushing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s had some setbacks, he said, but he&#8217;s hoping to get another round of treatment if it&#8217;s cleared by the FDA. It&#8217;s not clear when the FDA will weigh in.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I feel excited and hopeful, and I hope that more people hear about this,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;There are so many thousands of people in the country and the world that could really use this drug, and it&#8217;s the first of its kind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Williams is even able to drive, and he&#8217;s heading toward what he hopes will be a complete recovery.<\/p>\n<p>\n        More from CBS News\n      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An experimental drug could help improve movement for patients with spinal cord injuries, and it&#8217;s already making a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[41000,49,48,635,84,120516,10345,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-259830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-bucks-county","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-mentioned-on-air","14":"tag-pennsylvania","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}