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Oral MS drug passes tests
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345237/title/Oral_MS_drug_passes_testsPeople with multiple sclerosis might soon have a new option for controlling their disease with pills instead of shots. Two studies in the Sept. 20 New England Journal of Medicine demonstrate that a variation on a drug used against psoriasis for years in Germany holds off MS relapses and has minimal side effects.
“These data look good. Both studies show a reduction in relapses with really pretty robust effects,” says Clyde Markowitz, a neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania who wasn’t involved with the trials.
The drug, called BG-12, has been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval by the biotech company Biogen Idec. Markowitz expects it to get approved. “It would be a clear benefit to the MS population to have another option,” he says. If approved, BG-12 would be the third oral drug available to treat MS.
The disease results when the immune system attacks the fatty myelin sheaths coating nerves in the central nervous system, leading to impaired muscle control, balance, vision and speech. BG-12, or dimethyl fumarate, has anti-inflammatory, cell-protective and antioxidant effects, which earlier work suggested could suppress the aberrant immune reactions in MS patients.
