MS News from New Zealand: Experimental drug containing tiny fragments of teenage acne bacteria trialled on MS patients

A drug trial is offering hope to Victorians suffering from multiple sclerosis.

VICTORIAN patients with multiple sclerosis are trialling an experimental drug containing tiny fragments of teenage acne bacteria.

The potential new treatment for the disease is derived from the same bacteria that causes acne in teenagers and aims to stimulate responses in the immune system.

Most patients with relapsing-remitting MS go on to develop secondary progressive MS where there are not relapses or remission.

Principal investigator Dr Bob Soh, from the Nucleus Network in Melbourne, said there are currently no effective treatments for secondary progressive MS.

Already eight Victorians are signed up to the phase 2B trial of the drug MIS416, which will determine if the drug can improve their symptoms.

Unlike other drugs that use a man-made version of the substance, MIS416 takes the bacteria and puts it through a manufacturing process that leaves behind just the microparticle required to elicit the immune reaction against MS.

Trial participants are given weekly infusions of the drug or a placebo.

But Dr Soh said that at the end of a 52-week trial period scientists would “unblind the trial” giving those who received the placebo the option of receiving the medication.

Trials of the drug in New Zealand have shown modest improvements in symptoms.

Stephen Mudgway, 51, has been on the drug for three years. “Before I was on the drug I was sleeping for 18 hours a day, but it has given me my life back,” Mr Mudgway said.

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