After some delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Phase 2/3 clinical trial evaluating whether Mavenclad (cladribine) can slow hand and arm function worsening in adults with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) and very limited walking abilities, has recruited its first patient.
The study, ChariotMS (NCT04695080), aims to enroll up to 200 patients with advanced progressive MS — a population typically excluded from clinical trials — at 20 sites across the U.K. More information about contacts and locations is available here.
“The recruitment of our first participant is a huge milestone, and I can hardly describe how excited I am that ChariotMS is finally getting underway in earnest,” Klaus Schmierer, PhD, the trial’s principal investigator of the Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust, said in a press release of MS Society UK, which is partly funding the study.
While maintaining MS patients’ upper limb function “is essential to their quality of life,” until now “walking ability has been the only official measurement of whether or not an MS treatment is effective” in clinical trials, Schmierer added.
“This has excluded people who depend on a wheelchair from taking part in trials and, as a result, from accessing effective treatment that will help maintain their hand and arm function,” Schmierer explained.
He believes that, if successful, ChariotMS “would be a major step towards a first DMT [disease-modifying therapy] to protect upper limb function for people with MS who aren’t able to use their lower limbs at all, or can only walk short distances with help from aids like crutches.”
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