Bay Area research team has unveiled of clinical trial results of a new promising drug, which could become the first one to treat a progressive form of multiple sclerosis. The drug called ocrelizumab can greatly reduce symptoms of progressive multiple sclerosis as well as of relapsing and remitting multiple sclerosis.

Researchers said that there are treatments available for the relapsing and remitting form. But there is no drug for the kind that worsens after the diagnosis. UCSF neurologist Stephen Hauser, who has been studying multiple sclerosis for 35 years, said that the results are great. It is the first time that there has been a drug proven to show efficacy among people with progressive MS.

In the study, the researchers have involved two trials for relapsing MS that included more than 1,600 patients and one in which the drug was test on more than 700 patients with the progressive disease.

Around 85% of MS patients are initially diagnosed with relapsing and remitting form and 10 to 15% are diagnosed with the progressive form. In the trials, the researchers have tested ocrelizumab against Rebif, which is considered quite effective to treat relapsing MS patients.

It was found that Ocrelizumab was able to reduce attacks by around half over the two-year study period and it also showed fewer side effects.” This has the potential to be a major advance for people living with primary progressive MS who have waited so long for an effective disease-modifying therapy”, said Bruce Bebo, executive vice-president of research for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

“This pivoted the entire field,” said Hauser, who said he has no financial interest in the drug. “First, it validated the concept and changed the field ... and then it sent us back to the lab with laser-like focus.”