New disease-modifying therapies for multiple sclerosis can help slow down disease progression. Some experimental therapies also show promise in treating the disease.
There’s currently no cure for multiple sclerosis (MS), but there are several treatment options that can help manage it. In recent years, new medications have become available to help slow the progression of the disease and relieve symptoms.
Researchers are continuing to develop new treatments and learn more about the causes and risk factors of this disease.
Read on to learn about some of the latest treatment breakthroughs and promising avenues of research.
Disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) are the main group of medications used to treat MS. To date, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved more than a dozen DMTs for different types of MS.
Most recently, the FDA has approved:
- Ocrelizumab (Ocrevus): This drug treats relapsing forms of MS and primary progressive MS (PPMS). It’s the first DMTTrusted Source to be approved to treat PPMS and the only one approved for all four types of MS.
- Fingolimod (Gilenya): This drug treats pediatric MS. It was already approved for adults and, in 2018, became the first DMT to be approved for childrenTrusted Source.
- Cladribine (Mavenclad): This drug is approvedTrusted Source to treat relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and active secondary progressive MS (SPMS).
- Siponimod (Mayzent): This drug is approvedTrusted Source to treat RRMS, active SPMS, and clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). In a phase 3 clinical trialTrusted Source, siponimod effectively reduced the rate of relapse in people with active SPMS. Compared with a placebo, it cut the relapse rate in half.
- Ponesimod (Ponvory): This FDA-approvedTrusted Source drug has been shown to reduce annual relapses for relapsing types of MS by 30.5%Trusted Source when compared with teriflunomide (Aubagio).
- Ublituximab (Briumvi): This drug was approved by the FDATrusted Source to treat RRMS, SPMS, and CIS. It is a monoclonal antibody given as an infusion.
While new treatments are continually being approved, some medications are being removed from pharmacy shelves. In March 2018, daclizumab (Zinbryta) was withdrawn from markets around the world due to reports of the drug potentially causing inflammatory brain disorders. This drug is no longer available to treat MS.
Experimental therapies
Several other medications are moving through the research pipeline. In recent studies, some of these medications have shown promise for treating MS.
- The results of a phase 2 clinical trial suggest that the drug ibudilast might help reduce the progression of MS. To learn more about this medication, the manufacturer plans to conduct a phase 3 clinical trial.
- The findings of a small 2017 studyTrusted Source suggest that clemastine fumarate might help restore the protective coating around nerves in people with relapsing forms of MS. This oral antihistamine is currently available over the counter but not in the dose used in the clinical trial. More research is needed to study its potential benefits and risks for treating MS.
- Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation therapy is a promising new treatment for MS that’s currently being studied. It’s not currently approved in the United States, but interest is growing in the field, and it’s being evaluated in clinical trials.
Data-driven strategies to target treatments
Thanks to the development of new medications for MS, people have a growing number of treatment options to choose from. — Continue reading