Novartis reported that its multiple sclerosis treatment, remibrutinib, lowered the frequency of relapses by roughly one-third compared to a standard therapy, according to data presented on Friday. While the drug's efficacy did not match that of a competing product from Roche, Novartis stated that remibrutinib offers a cleaner safety profile, which could allow it to compete in the market.
The results come from two Phase 3 studies involving patients with the relapsing form of multiple sclerosis. In these trials, remibrutinib reduced the annualized relapse rate by 35.2% and 31.2% when compared against Aubagio, an approved drug from Sanofi. Heinz Wiendl, a neurologist at the University of Freiburg, presented the data from the REMODEL-1 and REMODEL-2 studies at a multiple sclerosis conference in Toronto. Wiendl explained that the reduction translates to approximately one relapse every 13 years.