Clinical focus in MS: Novel approaches to progressive MS

[MSUK]

Clinical focus in MS: Novel approaches to progressive disease

Although the drug development pipeline still contains numerous products intended for patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), the consensus among clinicians is that relapses can be effectively squelched in nearly all RRMS patients with the dozen or so currently approved therapies.

Patients now have a choice between injectables and oral drugs, and within the injectable class there is a range of dosing intervals and delivery types -- expanded just this week with the approval of alemtuzumab (Lemtrada) that requires just two brief courses of therapy a year apart.

The more pressing clinical need now, researchers told MedPage Today, is for treatments that stop or reverse the progressive forms of MS. This has been a tougher nut to crack because the mechanisms underlying progressive MS are less well understood than the acute demyelinating attacks that characterize RRMS. A particularly important aspect that remains mysterious is the switch that occurs in many patients from RRMS to the secondary progressive form or SPMS....... Read More - http://www.ms-uk.org/MStypes