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MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Beyond ocrelizumab in primary progressive multiple sclerosis

Currently, the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody ocrelizumab is the only approved treatment for primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS). However, a new study suggests that other immunomodulatory disease-modifying therapies that are often used to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis could be effective in people with PPMS who have evidence of active inflammatory disease.

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Acknowledgements

T.W. acknowledges support from the MS-STAT2 clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03387670), with funding derived from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme, the UK Multiple Sclerosis Society, the US National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Rosetrees Trust. J.C. acknowledges support from the Efficacy and Evaluation Programme, a Medical Research Council and NIHR partnership and the HTA Programme, the UK MS Society, the US National MS Society and the Rosetrees Trust. J.C. is supported in part by the NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, London, UK.

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Correspondence to Thomas Williams.

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T.W. has received honoraria for educational talks for Novartis and Merck. J.C. has been a local principal investigator for a trial in MS funded by the Canadian MS Society and for commercial trials funded by Actelion, Novartis and Roche. He has taken part in advisory boards and/or consultancy for Azadyne, Janssen, Merck, NervGen, Novartis and Roche.

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Williams, T., Chataway, J. Beyond ocrelizumab in primary progressive multiple sclerosis. Nat Rev Neurol 18, 641–642 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-022-00724-8

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