Treatment of MS at the First Demyelinating Event Delays Progression: Presented at ANA

CHICAGO, IL -- October 12, 2006 -- Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who start treatment with interferon beta-1b (Betaseron) at the time of their first demyelinating event have a longer time to progression than patients treated with placebo, according to a research presented here at the American Neurological Association (ANA) 131st Annual Meeting.

"This is the first early treatment study to use the McDonald criteria and show that interferon beta-1b delays the development of McDonald MS," said principal investigator Hans-Peter Hartung, MD, professor of neurology, Heinrich-Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany, in a presentation on October 9th.

The McDonald criteria were published in 2001 and consist of standards for assessing the MS severity.

A McDonald MS diagnosis is characterized by progression that discerns MS from a clinically isolated syndrome.

When the investigators analyzed disability outcomes, they found no significant change in the patients' Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores from baseline in either treatment group.....

The findings show that treatment with 250 mcg of interferon beta-1b every other day slows progression of MS and has favorable effects, by some criteria, on disability status in patients with clinically isolated syndrome, the researchers concluded. Therefore, the findings show that patients would benefit from early initiation of treatment with interferon beta-1b, they say.

The study was funded by Schering AG, which developed Betaseron.


[Presentation title: Betaseron in Newly Emerging Multiple Sclerosis for Initial Treatment (BENEFIT): Disability Outcomes. Abstract M-10]