Edward Tobinick

Edward Tobinick

Edward Lewis Tobinick is an American physician currently in full-time private practice in Los Angeles, California and he is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Tobinick is co-author of the recent case report documenting rapid clinical improvement in a patient with Alzheimer's disease following perispinal administration of etanercept which has been received with considerable interest. Wyeth in collaboration with the University of Southampton has, as of January 2011, begun enrollment into a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of etanercept for patients with Alzheimer's disease. Also being trialed currently, in a multi-center study, is the use of epidural etanercept for sciatica (U.S. patent 6,419,944 issued to Tobinick July 2002), for which favorable randomized, placebo-controlled clinical data from Walter Reed Army Medical Center were published in 2009 (Anesthesiology. 2009 May;110(5):1116-26).

Tobinick has been issued patents for methods of perispinal administration, of certain recombinant DNA-derived (biologic) therapeutics including the TNF receptor fusion protein etanercept, for the treatment of certain neurologic disorders with widespread unmet medical need, including Alzheimer's disease; pain due to cancer metastasis to bone; severe, intractable, intervertebral disc-related pain and radiculopathy (including sciatica); and myasthenia gravis. In addition, he originated the concept of the potential utility of etanercept, alone or in combination with oseltamivir for treatment of influenza (U.S. patent 6,419,934, filed September 5, 2000 ). For these novel treatment methods he has been issued multiple U.S. patents, including 6,015,557 (Tumor necrosis factor antagonists for the treatment of neurological disorders) ; 6,177,077 ; 6,419,934 ; and 6,982,089 . In general, his concepts represent emerging therapeutic strategies supported by small pilot studies and expert reviews. (see Publications and References).

Tobinick earned his M.D. from the UC San Diego School of Medicine in 1977.