New Oral Treatments Expected to be Available for Multiple Sclerosis

Several disease-modifying drugs are actually approved for the treatment of relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. These common therapies have three major disadvantages: (1) they only have a limited effect, (2) they are administered by subcutaneous or intramuscular injection, and (3) they have considerable side effects. As a result, patient satisfaction and treatment adherence are only suboptimal. A lot of scientific research is focused on developing new therapies, and especially oral treatment options are being looked forward to. In this article, candidates for future oral therapies are reviewed including cladribine, BG-12, lakinimode and teriflunomide. All these agents have different mechanisms of action and their efficacy and safety characteristics are different, as well as their potential role in clinical practice. However, it seems likely that injection therapies which were the mainstay of disease-modifying treatment in MS in the last 15 years may soon be replaced by oral agents. (Archives of Neuropsychiatry 2011; 48 Supplement 2: 67-72)