Novartis (NVS) announced that new Gilenya analyses will be presented at the 67th American Academy of Neurology or AAN Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, USA from April 18-25, 2015, showing how Novartis is advancing methods assessing the impact of relapsing multiple sclerosis or RMS for patients and physicians.
The company noted that data will show how adding brain shrinkage (brain volume loss) to an existing tool to assess MS disease activity (m-Rio) will give a more precise prediction of the likelihood of future disability progression. Accurate assessment of disease activity is key to guide treatment decisions in RMS.
A pooled analysis from the two-year phase III FREEDOMS and FREEDOMS II trials will further confirm Gilenya's high efficacy in previously-treated patients with highly-active RMS in achieving 'no evidence of disease activity' (NEDA4) across four key measures: relapses, MRI lesions, brain shrinkage and disability progression. Achieving NEDA4 is especially critical for highly-active RMS patients, who are likely to lose more physical and cognitive functions over time despite being treated.
Additional data will also be presented on ASSESS-MS, a project in early development which uses an innovative movement recording system and aims to quantify an individual's level of disability in a non-invasive, patient-friendly manner. It measures a patient's movements using the Microsoft Kinect sensor with machine learning algorithms.
Multiple sclerosis or MS is a chronic disorder of the central nervous system or CNS that disrupts the normal functioning of the brain, optic nerves and spinal cord through inflammation and tissue loss.
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