BRADENTON --Although Donald Schleich, a U.S. citizen living outside of Nantes, France, is completely satisfied with the care he receives through the French health system, he is crossing the Atlantic Ocean twice a year to take part in a clinical trial of a new multiple sclerosis drug at Bradenton Research Center.His hope: The new drug will prove to be an effective treatment to stall the relentless and irreversible decline that comes with the disease. MS is an auto-immune disease that causes the patient’s own immune system to attack the body. Schleich’s condition has already declined to the point where he needs two canes to walk. Eventually, unless the progression can be slowed, he may become wheelchair bound.
