MS sufferers given new hope with 'landmark' drug

A "landmark" new drug able to alter the immune system is giving hope to sufferers of multiple sclerosis.

Ocrelizumab is the first medication to show signs of improving primary progressive MS, the BBC reports. Trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that of 732 patients, the percentage of those whose condition worsened fell from 39 per cent without the drug to 33 per cent with it.

Researcher Dr Fred Lublin of New York's Mount Sinai Hospital told CBS: "This is for us the start of treating progressive MS, the treating progressive MS era."

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MS is an incurable disease in which the immune system attacks part of the brain, causing extreme fatigue, difficulty walking and poor vision.

It has two forms: primary progressive MS, where the conditions worsens over time, and relapsing remitting MS, where sufferers make occasional temporary recoveries. The latter has some treatments available, although both remain incurable.

Ocrelizumab works by killing off the immune system's B cells, which in MS attack the myelin coating found around nerves that helps signals travel through the body. When this is damaged, messages from the brain struggle to get through.

Dr Peter Calabresi from John Hopkins University in Baltimore, said: "This is the first drug to show a significant effect in slowing disability progression in a phase three trial in primary progressive multiple sclerosis. [It] therefore represents a landmark study in the field."

Scientists applauded the breakthrough, but warned doctors should "stay vigilant" to any possible side-effects, the BBC adds.

The drug is being reviewed for use in the US and Europe. However, Professor Gavin Giovannoni from Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry who was involved in the trials, warned UK patients might struggle to receive the drug on the NHS given its expected expense.

"I would expect a narrow group of people to be eligible," he told the BBC.