Swiss drug maker Novartis AG (NVS) announced that the new data would be presented at the 23rd meeting of the European Neurological Society or ENS that show how Novartis' Gilenya, the first once-daily oral therapy approved to treat people with relapsing multiple sclerosis, positively impacted the key measures for multiple sclerosis or MS - relapse rates, brain volume loss, lesions as well as disability progression. The improvement of these key measures resulted in favorable clinical outcomes.
The new findings from the TRANSFORMS study demonstrated that a greater proportion of patients were disease free after one year on Gilenya treatment compared to interferon. For patients on interferon in the first year, the proportion who were disease free during the second year grew after they were switched from interferon to Gilenya treatment. The above findings suggest that switching from interferon to Gilenya is beneficial for patients with RMS to achieve and maintain long-term disease-free status.
Gilenya, which is licensed from Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp., is the first oral therapy approved to treat relapsing forms of MS and the first in a new class of compounds called sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor modulators. To date, nearly 63,000 patients have been treated with Gilenya showing a positive benefit-risk profile in clinical study and real-world settings.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com