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A New Oral Drug for MS: How Does it Compare?

A new oral medication, terifl unomide, may not be the gamechanger neurologists have been awaiting, but it appears to restrain the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) as well as drugs already approved by the FDA — without producing signifi cantly more side effects. “It’s not really a new drug,” said Timothy L. Vollmer, MD, professor of neurology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and medical director of the Rocky Mountain MS Center at Anschutz Medical Center. “Terifl unomide is in the same class as azathioprine, an oral chemotherapy drug, so it’s a new formulation of something used for many years in cancer and autoimmunity.” Terifl unomide is a drug metabolite of lefl unomide, approved to treat rheumatoid arthritis, “and the major issue with lefl unomide has been liver toxicity,” Dr. Vollmer said. “The good thing is that the liver toxicity of terifl unomide does not seem to be signifi cantly different from fi ngolimod and the interferons. It’s just one of those safety issues we’ll have to monitor. As physicians we’re fairly comfortable with terifl unomide because we’ve used similar drugs for years.”