For Dr. Hale or Dr. Nice:

One of my patients' mothers has MS and was just put on COPAXONE.  The toddler
is 18 months old.  I couldn't find any information on the drug in the PDR, so
I called the hospital pharmacy and found out that it is a mixture of random
polymers of amino acids with a molecular weight of 4700-13000; it is given by
injection subcutaneously.

My sense is that this drug should be safe for breastfeeding mothers since 1)
it is a large molecule and probably won't diffuse readily into breastmilk, 2)
it is given by injection and therefore not absorbed orally, and 3) is a
mixture of amino acid polymers which, if they found their way into the
infant's gut would simply be digested by gut enzymes and absorbed as any
other protein food item would be.

Please let me know if my analysis is correct on this.  Thanks all.

Linda L. Shaw MD FAAP

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