NEW YORK, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Multiple sclerosis societies hailed two pills, effective in clinical trials, as possibly leading to an oral treatment for MS alongside injections and infusions.
"This is great news for people with MS and signifies a shifting tide in the treatment of the condition," said Doug Brown, biomedical research manager of the MS Society of Great Britain.
"Having oral therapies in the MS pipeline is real progress, and it should increase the number of people who choose to begin therapy earlier and who stay on therapy, which our experts say is the best way to combat future disease activity," said Dr. John Richert, executive vice president of research and clinical programs at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in New York.
But researchers caution that some patients taking the experimental drugs -- made by Switzerland's Novartis AG and Germany's Merck KGaA -- experienced adverse reactions that needed to be carefully weighed against the drugs' benefits.
The reactions included herpes infections, a small number of cancer cases and a type of eye disease that could lead to blindness, said the clinical-trial results published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Regulators including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency are deciding whether to approve the drugs for sale.
Most people with MS currently are treated with Copaxone or a group of drugs called interferons, which usually must be injected several times a week. The drugs are moderately effective, The Wall Street Journal said.
A more potent drug called Tysabri is given by monthly infusion, and works well in many cases, but is associated with a rare but potentially lethal brain infection, the newspaper said.
