A new drug called ocrelizumab has just passed two large clinical trials with flying colors, cutting multiple sclerosis relapses by nearly 50 percent.
The drug, produced by Switzerland-based company Roche, beat out Merck’s Rebif — an older treatment — which has a strong track record, according to a Reuters report.
In addition, ocrelizumab cut by a quarter the advancement toward disability in patients in a separate study for those with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, which affects 15 percent of patients. There is not yet any treatment at all for this form of the disease.
Ocrelizumab does not have the severe side effects of other drugs out there — the most potent of which are used to treat more advanced stages of the disease. If this effectiveness can be proven, this along with the low side effects could make it the next MS miracle drug that could make the manufacturer billions of dollars per year, and potentially improve the quality of countless lives for those suffering from MS.
The findings were presented at a congress in Barcelona, Spain. In the trials, Rebif cut relapses by a third, but the new drug showed drops of 46 and 47 percent, a huge improvement. Roche will try to get it approved by regulators early next year, which means it could release it to the market in about a year’s time.
The fact that ocrelizumab is gentle on patients is important, because MS sufferers have an abnormal immune system, and the more potent drugs have some unpleasant side effects.
The new drug would be administered via intravenous drip — not ideal for patients, but it can be timed with regular neurologist visits to minimize inconvenience.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society says that MS is an “an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body,” its website states. “The cause of MS is still unknown – scientists believe the disease is triggered by as-yet-unidentified environmental factor(s) in a person who is genetically predisposed to respond.”
“In multiple sclerosis (MS), damage to the myelin coating around the nerve fibers in the central nervous system (CNS) and to the nerve fibers themselves interferes with the transmission of nerve signals between the brain, spinal cord and the rest of the body,” the site adds. “Disrupted nerve signals cause the symptoms of MS, which vary from one person to another and over time for any given individual, depending on where the damage occurs. The diagnosis of MS requires evidence of at least two areas of damage in the CNS, which have occurred at different times.”