Around 130,000 people in Germany and over 2 million worldwide suffer from MS, which damages and interferes with the nervous system. It scrambles messages between the brain and other parts of the body. For most patients, the disease is characterized by periods of relapse and remission, with symptoms ranging from blurred vision to weak limbs subsiding and largely disappearing for a time after attacking a patient. The drugs currently available temper acute symptoms and reduce the risk of remission by around a third.

Even though therapy for many patients could become simpler and more effective with the new tablets, further drugs requiring injections or infusions are also being developed and tested. That is because these drugs, which are designed to tackle certain kinds of cells, could prove especially effective in preventing remission for some patients. Two such drugs could be approved by the end of 2013. Also in the approval pipeline are two drugs to alleviate the symptoms of advanced MS. One is designed to improve patients’ ability to walk and the other to tackle spasms. 

“Half of Germany’s pharma companies are working on new drugs against neurological diseases such as MS. The companies will not rest until this disease becomes readily treatable and patients no longer have to worry about having a disability,” Ms Yzer concluded.