STUDY: Gilenya not effective in treatment for PPMS

[ActiveMSers]

Effective treatments for PPMS continue to evade researchers. This latest news on Gilenya is beyond disappointing, especially as a Phase III trial. Hang in there, PPMSers!
-Dave

Novartis’s Gilenya Treatment Fails in Trial for Difficult Form of MS

ZURICH- Novartis AG Monday said a late-stage study showed little difference between its top-selling Gilenya drug and a placebo for treating a difficult form of multiple sclerosis.

Basel-based Novartis said the Phase III trial of the treatment, which is already approved for treating relapsing multiple sclerosis, failed to show significant difference in disability measures when compared with a placebo used by patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/novar...-ms-1417422397

[ActiveMSers]

Here researchers are parsing this news. A key takeaway: "Don't give up hope; I am sure inflammation has a role in PPMS. Fingolimod may simply not be good enough as an anti-inflammatory. Ocrelizumab is a much more potent anti-inflammatory."

http://multiple-sclerosis-research.b...d-in-ppms.html

[Apollo]

There is a related article (Tysabri) titled, "Promising Results for Natalizumab in Progressive MS" reporting on a favorable Phase 2 trial.

This article can be found on Medscape or the title may be Googled.

Also, another very good article titled, "Axonal Damage in Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis is Markedly Reduced by Natalizumab" can be Googled and the pdf downloaded.

It is clear, IMO, that potent anti-inflammatories like Tysabri have a dramatic affect no matter what stage... RRMS, SPMS, or PPMS.

A Credit Suisse analyst has estimated the Progressive MS market potential at $7 billion. Treating progressive forms of MS is a serious focus because 7b is serious money. No doubt we will have FDA approved treatments in the near future, IMO. That is just too much money for pharma to ignore. Even something which kind of works will be a financial bonanza.

The good news is that progressive MS will no longer be ignored.

[Apollo]

Another article relative to progressive MS titled, “Secondary Progressive MS Research Into Natalizumab Continues To Progress” can be found at: http://bionews-tx.com/news/2014/02/0...s-to-progress/

This article states in part, “The current study involving Natalizumab seeks to determine whether the drug is particularly efficacious in reducing the progression of disability for patients who already have secondary progressive MS. It is a relatively large study involving 156 different site locations throughout the world, and the fact that the study is Phase 3b suggests that the use of the drug in treating SPMS has shown enough success in previous studies to be cleared for testing across a wide range of participants.

The study will use a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled approach for approximately 856 SPMS subjects…”