https://goo.gl/R8Ei0v
In findings that show the effectiveness of a new strategy for treating multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers are reporting positive results from three large, international, multicenter Phase III clinical trials of the investigational drug ocrelizumab (brand name Ocrevus) in both relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS) and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS).
The reduction in inflammatory brain lesions seen in the OPERA trials is “unprecedented,” said UC San Francisco’s Stephen Hauser, MD, who served as chair of the Scientific Steering Committee for the OPERA trials and is corresponding author on the NEJM paper reporting the results from those trials. Hauser, professor and chair of UCSF’s Department of Neurology, and colleagues have long championed the idea that B cells play a central role in MS, and their research over many decades was instrumental in bringing ocrelizumab into clinical trials.
As there are no existing treatments for PPMS, the ORATORIO trials compared ocrelizumab with a placebo, and “clinically meaningful” reductions in disability progression and in other markers of worsening disease were seen, results that have never been observed in PPMS.
In all three trials, the most common adverse events associated with ocrelizumab were infusion-related reactions and infections, which were mostly mild to moderate in severity.