For people living with multiple sclerosis, slowing or stopping this chronic and debilitating neurological disease often means sitting through hours-long infusion sessions, during which treatments slowly drip into a patient’s bloodstream. But on Thursday, Swiss pharma giant Roche raised hopes that this process could be cut down to minutes.
In a clinical trial dubbed OCARINA II, the company showed that delivering Ocrevus, a treatment for certain forms of multiple sclerosis, as a 10-minute injection beneath the skin worked just as well as the current standard, an intravenous infusion that takes hours to deliver.
The company in a press release said it plans to share more detailed results from the trial at an upcoming medical conference and submit the study results to regulatory authorities. The recent results put Roche in position to expand the reach of what is already a blockbuster therapy — and to stave off competition.