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. Tobinick holds a number of patents regarding the use of medical lasers for hair removal and etanercept, a drug that inhibits tumor necrosis factor-alpha to decrease its role in various inflammatory diseases.

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 which, although supported by small pilot studies, have not yet been confirmed by randomized clinical trials.

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