viggster
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Ocrelizumab works much like rituximab, depleting B cells. Good long article here goes into how difficult it was for researchers to secure funding to test B cell drugs in MS because the prevailing notions focused on T cells as the culprit in the disease. Now it looks like both types of immune cells are involved. It's the first drug approved for primary progressive MS. Brand name is Ocrevus.
Excerpt:
https://www.statnews.com/2017/03/28/multiple-sclerosis-ms-drug-ocrelizumab/?s_campaign=stat:rss
Excerpt:
Armed with journal articles describing their research, Hauser and other researchers applied for a grant from the National Institutes of Health to run a pilot study of rituximab in people.
The NIH said no. The idea was “biologically implausible,” Hauser said they were told. The NIH offered to fund the study if they targeted T cells, he added, but they declined.
“Once we get an idea in medicine, we pivot off that idea very slowly sometimes,” Hauser said.
In 2001, he asked Genentech to fund the study. Initially, he met resistance there as well, he said. A team of outside experts the company assembled to evaluate the proposal rated its chances of success at less than 15 percent.
But some top insiders came to support the idea, and in 2003, after 18 months of discussions, Genentech agreed to a trial.
The NIH said no. The idea was “biologically implausible,” Hauser said they were told. The NIH offered to fund the study if they targeted T cells, he added, but they declined.
“Once we get an idea in medicine, we pivot off that idea very slowly sometimes,” Hauser said.
In 2001, he asked Genentech to fund the study. Initially, he met resistance there as well, he said. A team of outside experts the company assembled to evaluate the proposal rated its chances of success at less than 15 percent.
But some top insiders came to support the idea, and in 2003, after 18 months of discussions, Genentech agreed to a trial.
https://www.statnews.com/2017/03/28/multiple-sclerosis-ms-drug-ocrelizumab/?s_campaign=stat:rss