Thousands of patients with multiple sclerosis are to benefit from a new 10-minute injection on the
Multiple sclerosis is a lifelong condition that is estimated to affect more than 150,000 people in the UK, including over 120,000 people in England.
It is more common in women and each week around 135 people in the UK are diagnosed with MS.
There are three main types of MS – around 85 per cent of those living with multiple sclerosis have relapsing remitting MS and experience episodic attacks of symptoms, and taking a disease modifying therapy can help reduce relapses and slow down MS.
Approximately 10-15 per cent of patients have primary progressive multiple sclerosis, where symptoms gradually worsen and accumulate over several years, and there are no periods of remission.
Secondary progressive MS is a stage of MS which comes after relapsing remitting MS, but thanks to disease modifying therapies fewer people are likely to go on to secondary progressive MS, and for those who do, it can be delayed for longer.
Ceri Smith, Head of Policy at the MS Society, said: “We welcome the decision to license injections as a new method of delivering ocrelizumab (Ocrevus). Over 150,000 people live with MS in the UK, and many of them rely on disease modifying treatments like ocrelizumab to help reduce MS relapses.
“This method will expand the choices available to many MS patients and will mean more people can receive this treatment in a way that suits them.”
Ocrelizumab, manufactured by Roche, was first approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis in 2018, with further approval for primary progression multiple sclerosis in 2019.
