When early warning signs of multiple sclerosis (MS) are evident on brain scans, treatment with Sanofi's Aubagio (teriflunomide) may delay onset of symptoms of the crippling disease, a small trial suggests.
Aubagio is currently approved for treating the relapsing-remitting form of MS. Symptoms of MS may include fatigue, numbness, tingling or difficulty walking.
With magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the head being done more often for unrelated reasons, such as headache or head trauma, abnormalities in the brain or spinal cord that are often precursors of MS are increasingly being uncovered before symptoms develop. The presence of these lesions in asymptomatic individuals is called radiologically isolated syndrome.
"Many of these people go on to develop MS," said Dr. Christine Lebrun Frenay of University Hospital of Nice in France, who led the study to be presented on Tuesday in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.
Her team randomly assigned 89 people with radiologically isolated syndrome to receive teriflunomide daily, or a placebo. Over the next two years, MS symptoms developed in eight people who took the drug and in 20 who took the placebo.
After adjusting for participants' other risk factors, the researchers estimated that the Sanofi drug reduced the risk of symptom onset by 72%.
"Our findings suggest that early intervention with teriflunomide may be beneficial to those diagnosed with radiologically isolated syndrome, the presymptomatic phase of MS," Lebrun Frenay said in a statement, adding that the results must be confirmed with larger trials.
Biogen and Roche are also testing their MS drugs - Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate) and Ocrevus (ocrelizumab), respectively - to see if they will delay disease onset in patients with radiologically isolated syndrome.
Tecfidera delayed the time before development of a first neurological symptom significantly more than placebo in an 87-patient trial, Biogen reported in December.
