Riluzole
There are two brands of riluzole available in Australia. Rilutek™ is manufactured by Sanofi and the generic version APO-Riluzole is made by Apotex.
Riluzole appears to block the release of glutamate from nerve cells (neurones).
Riluzole is safe and effective for slowing disease progression to a modest degree in ALS (Miller and others 2009a). Riluzole 100 mg daily is reasonably safe and probably prolongs median survival by about two to three months in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Miller and others 2012).
A liquid formulation of riluzole is also available on the PBS in Australia (RACGP 2019).