MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Mayzent in the UK, Aubagio and Other DMTs, Unemployment

Mayzent Approved for Active SPMS Patients in England and Wales

This is great news for people with MS in England and Wales. Mayzent (siponimod) is a needed weapon in the MS battle. It is approved for use in active cases of secondary progressive MS (SPMS), while most other disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) aren’t. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved this DMT over a year and a half ago, but the treatment was slow to gain the necessary recommendation from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for use in the National Health Service.

As “Professor G” wrote in the Multiple Sclerosis Research Blog, “At last, we have a treatment that can modify the progressive pathology that underpins secondary progressive MS with active disease. The ‘Forgotten Many’ is how people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis have described themselves; but not anymore.”

By the way, Mayzent also was approved a few days ago for people with active SPMS in Scotland.

Mayzent (c) has become the first oral medication to be approved for people with active secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) in England and Wales.

Following this decision by England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) — which reversed its opinion announced in June — the National Health Service (NHS) will have two months in Wales and three months in England to prepare for providing the medication.

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Aubagio’s Long-term Benefits Not Influenced by Prior Treatments, Review Finds

If you’ve wondered whether using another disease-modifying therapy would have an impact if you later switched to Aubagio, wonder no longer. Apparently, it does not. Note, however, that the trials reviewed for this study were paid for by Sanofi, which markets Aubagio, and most of the authors have received money from Sanofi or its subsidiary, Genzyme, at one time or another.

Prior treatment with disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) does not affect the long-term benefits of Aubagio (teriflunomide) in treating relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a review study.

The study, “Prior treatment status: impact on the efficacy and safety of teriflunomide in multiple sclerosis,” was published in the journal BMC Neurology.

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Risk Factors for Unemployment in People With MS Identified in Study

This study lists several things as primary factors for putting people with MS at a high risk of being out of work. But I’ll list another: employers who don’t want a person with a chronic disease working for them. My “MS Wire” column last Friday was about that.

Factors related to disease and personality, as well as specific health-related behaviors, are among the main determinants that can put people with multiple sclerosis (MS) at risk of unemployment, a study suggests.

In particular, MS disease course, fatigue, self-efficacy (belief in one’s own abilities to cope, in this case, with their disease), and diet/exercise were found to affect the risk of unemployment in MS.

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