Dimethyl fumarate can significantly reduce the progression of multiple sclerosis

A placebo-controlled trial (http://www.chemdrug.com/sell/24/) showed that patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) treated with a sustained-release formulation of dimethyl fumarate (tecbidra) significantly reduced their disease progression, risk of recurrence, and imaging disease activity A factorial analysis of the data collected from the phase III study of define / Co nfirm (http://www.chemdrug.com/sell/76/) showed that in a significantly higher proportion of RRMS patients, dimethyl fumarate (DMF) was associated with evidence of disease-free activity (Neda) and had greater benefits in clinical, imaging and whole body disease activity The average age of the patients was 38 years old, 70% of them were female The average course of disease was 7-8.5 years The average recurrence of disease occurred 1.3 times in the year before the recruitment, and the average EDSS score was 2.5 points Patients were randomly assigned to receive 240 mg (twice daily) of DMF, placebo or grantirole acetate (confirmed only) for a period of ≤ 2 years Baseline characteristics and therapeutic effects were compared between groups This comprehensive analysis provides a large sample size, including the 154 patients in the ITT group and 692 patients in the MRI cohort In the study, Neda was defined as no three disease activities: no recurrence extended disability status scale (EDSS) showed no definite disability progression for 12 consecutive weeks, no MRI disease activities (such as no new gadolinium enhanced lesions and no new / newly enhanced T2 high signal lesions) were found in the European Journal of Neurology wrote that after two years of treatment, DMF patients had a 39% reduction in the risk of recurrence and confirmed disability progression at 12 weeks compared with placebo patients in the intention to treat cohort, and new / newly enhanced T2 high signal lesions / gadolinium enhanced lesions had a 40% reduction compared with placebo patients in the MRI cohort (both P < 0.0001) The overall incidence of Neda (MRI cohort) in DMF group was higher than that in placebo group, 26% vs 12%, and the relative risk was reduced by 42.7% (HR 0.57, 95% CI, 0.48-0.69, P < 0.0001) The analysis results were consistent with the single result of define / / con firm / I, indicating that a higher proportion of patients in the DMF group had clinical, imaging and overall Neda benefits than those in the placebo group during the 2-year period The effect of continued dimethyl fumarate has been reported in the endorse study, which is a long-term extension of these studies The limitations of the study included the nature of factorial analysis, a relatively short 2-year follow-up period, and less than half of the patients underwent MRI Elisabeth Lucassen, of Herschel neurology in Pennsylvania, said, "I think we are all trying to make patients get Neda clinically, even if it may be an imperfect way or not always completely possible Research like this is important because it can help doctors better understand the efficacy of different drugs used to treat MS (http://www.chemdrug.com/)