Reducing clinical trial risk in multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) has enjoyed considerable success by the standards of any disease, in terms of the number of new drugs approved for treatment, and many of these drugs represent new mechanisms of action. How have we achieved this success and what might we further capitalize on this momentum? This question was recently tackled by Cassandra De Gasperis-Brigante, a former ROP Biology student working with Dr. Jayson Parker. Together they published “Reducing clinical trial risk in multiple sclerosis” in Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders. Cassandra showed that completely novel drugs appeared to carry less risk than drugs that were tested from other unrelated disease areas, and the success of these new drugs was nearly 3x the success rate of clinical trials of other disease areas. She also showed that novel small molecules were superior to biological in MS treatment. Cassandra is now in medical school.

Congratulations on all of your successes, Cassandra!