OhioHealth Medical Minute: International MS Conference

Hello everyone and welcome to another OhioHealth Medical Minute, my name is Marcus Thorpe, and I'm joined by neuroimmunologist and MS specialist Jacqueline Nicholas MD, MPH. Dr. Nicholas thanks for joining us. Let's talk about a large international conference last month, ECTRIMS.

JN: Yes, ECTRIMS is the largest meeting for MS in the world, and physicians, really anyone who provides MS care around the world come together once a year in the fall to share the latest and greatest in MS.

MT: With so many big minds, and so much happening, let's pull out a few of the biggest things from this year's conference, including potential FDA approval of a new drug, what can you tell us about that?

JN: Ofatumumab, which is one of my favorite things to say, there is groundbreaking data coming out on the phase-3 clinical trial that we actually ran here, this is a once monthly injectable treatment that patients can give at home that targets B cells, one of the key types of blood cells that controls inflammation in MS quite similar to a treatment we already have called Ocrevus. The interesting thing is the B-cells may come back faster with treatment and potentially lower the risk of infections.

MT: We know that MS impacts more women than men, from the conference I understand there is new information that could impact pregnant women.

JN: MS affects women about 3 times as much as men, and often during the child-bearing years.  We've known for a long time that when women get pregnant, it's protected against new relapses and new lesions in MS, but I think the most exciting thing is data from ECTRIMS that there may be ways we can use very effective treatments for MS safely, even during conception and pregnancy.

MT: Dr. Nicholas thanks. If you'd like to learn more about the world of MS in OhioHealth, click here.