Abstract
Thanks to the progress in diagnostics and therapy of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the past 20 years, many patients can hope today for long-term stabilization of their disability or minimization of its progression. However, MS progression is evident from the very beginning in some patients (suffering from primary progressive MS) or after the initial clinically isolated syndrome/relapsing-remitting course, leading to secondary progression.
Both progressive forms of MS can now be treated with ocrelizumab (Ocrevus, Roche) in the U.S.A. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) scrutinizes this drug at the moment and its statement concerning ocrelizumab is awaited by the end of 2017.
Ocrelizumab, humanized monoclonal antibody against B-cells with the CD20 surface antigen, was licensed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) based on three phase III trials - OPERA I, OPERA II, and ORATORIO. These trials have shown the effectiveness of ocrelizumab in progressive forms of MS not only with respect to disease activity (rate of relapses, magnetic resonance findings) but also in the sense that it slowed down the progression of disability.
The results of these trials were presented at the latest annual conference of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS 2016, London) and published in The New England Journal of Medicine (January 2017).