April 4, 2018 – MS Drug

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Anchor lead: Will a new drug help those with progressive multiple sclerosis? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Siponimid is the name of a drug recently trumpeted as the first to help slow disability in people with progressive multiple sclerosis. Peter Calabresi, an MS expert at Johns Hopkins, comments.

Calabresi: Siponimid, in secondary progressive MS, they reached their primary outcome in delaying disability progression in the treated group versus the placebo, however the effect size was very modest. :12

Calabresi says that there was a 21% reduction in disability with siponimid and increased side effects.

Calabresi: We’re all happy something works a little bit in progressive MS because the people who suffer with progressive MS have felt that it’s an orphan form of the disease and there’s never been anything. I think that it’s a positive message that there’s a treatable component of the disease but for the vast majority of patients there’s not an insignificant risk associated with some of these drugs.   :24

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.