People with multiple sclerosis are to have access to a new drug on the UK National Health Service, it was announced today.
The drug, dimethyl fumarate, delays disability and reduces relapse rates – and works better than other drugs, according to regulators.
It is also taken orally, rather than by injection.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said the NHS now had a legal obligation to fund the treatment for patients.
It said the manufacturer had agreed a discount on the cost of the drug.
It said patients should not be given the drug if they have the highly active or rapidly evolving relapsing-remitting form of the disease.
Professor Carole Longson, of NICE, said: “Evidence has shown that this drug is more effective in reducing relapse rates and just as effective in delaying disability progression compared with current similar treatments.
“Another advantage of dimethyl fumarate is that it is an oral treatment. It will be more convenient for patients to take than other currently available treatments, which must all be injected. It will help more people with multiple sclerosis to live a normal life.”
* Another new drug aimed at reversing the condition has shown promise in early trials on patients, it was announced last night.
Details of the phase I studies aimed at establishing the safety of anti-LINGO-1, or BIIB033, were published in Neurology Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation.
It is hoped the drug will reverse the damage to the nerves that causes multiple sclerosis, the process of demyelination.
The randomised study involved some 72 healthy people and 47 people with relapsing-remitting or progressive multiple sclerosis.
Researchers said the study showed no evidence of side-effects from the drug.
They now plan phase II studies aimed at testing the effectiveness of the drug.
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