People with progressive multiple sclerosis may have a better option for treatment thanks to a new drug being tested in a clinical trial at the Cleveland Clinic.
The study’s principal investigator for the clinical trial is Dr. Robert Fox. He’s been conducting trials with the drug ibudilast to slow atrophy in progressive MS patients.
There are currently no effective therapies, but Fox says he staying “cautiously optimistic.”
“You might imagine patients want therapies now;they are struggling with their progressive MS now and they don’t want to wait five years for a drug to be developed. So that’s one of our big challenges, to develop drugs faster and more efficiently so we can bring them to patients quickly,” said Dr. Fox.
The drug trial is in phase two with the main outcome showing that ibudilast did slow the progression of atrophy compared to placebos. However the drug still must go through a final phase of trials to obtain FDA approval.