Cheaper Choice May Slow MS

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Fresh data wows researchers hoping to beat back the progression of multiple sclerosis.

A group at the University of California, San Francisco, examining the impact of statins on multiple sclerosis (MS) patients found a lower chance of new brain lesion development in patients taking the drug in the early stages of the disease.

Study participants received a daily 80 milligram dose of atorvastatin, which is marketed by Pfizer, Inc. as the drug Lipitor. 

Despite the fact that fewer than 90 people took part in the study, researchers found over a one-year period that more than 55 percent of people given statins did not develop new brain lesions, as opposed to more than 27 percent of the placebo group.

“It is important that we […] learn whether a relatively inexpensive oral therapy can slow the course of disease,” study author Emmanuelle Waubant, M.D., Ph.D. of the USF MS Center, was quoted as saying. 

Experts caution that the study findings are preliminary.

Source: University of California, San Francisco; April 14, 2010

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