The European Medicines Agency has restricted the use of alemtuzumab (Lemtrada) for multiple sclerosis while it completes its review of safety issues that have emerged in recent months. Use of the drug will be limited to RRMS patients with highly-active disease despite prior treatment with at least two disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) or for whom all other DMTs are contraindicated. Current patients on alemtuzumab can continue taking the drug in consultation with their neurologist. Read More

Part 2

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Secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) is the onset of gradual worsening of disability following a relapsing-remitting course that may or may not be accompanied by relapses. There are no clear-cut demarcations (imaging, pathologic, immunologic) between the RRMS and SPMS phases, so diagnosis is generally made retrospectively. Read More

Siponimod (Mayzent), a second-generation sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor modulator, has received approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, including clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), relapsing-remitting MS and active secondary-progressive MS (SPMS). Read More

A single-centre analysis in Germany has found that polypharmacy is common among MS patients, with 56.5% of patients reporting use of 5 or more medications (Frahm et al. Sci Rep 2019;9:3743; free full text at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6403326/pdf/41598_2019_Article_40283.pdf). Most patients were currently taking a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for MS. Other medications commonly used were gastrointestinal drugs, thrombosis prophylaxis drugs, osteoporosis drugs, antihypertensives and sedatives. Read More