 Have you ever wondered how MSIF’s multi-million Euro research project, the Sylvia Lawry Centre for MS Research (SLCMSR), relates to people with MS? Here is a brief explanation of this unique and complex project.
Recent research and the approval of partially effective MS drugs have generated great optimism about the development of further treatments. However, in order to have a new MS treatment approved for use, a large placebo-based clinical trial is required, which can be lengthy and expensive. Meanwhile, to deny a potentially effective treatment to a person with MS and expect them to take only a placebo during a clinical trial has become ethically unacceptable.
The SLCMSR aims to address this problem by analysing a large collection of placebo data from past clinical trials. This will be used to find out whether it is possible to:
• model the expected course of MS and therefore develop a ‘virtual placebo’ group that can indicate whether or not an experimental treatment is effective, with the result that in future clinical trials no one will have to take a placebo; and
• identify ‘markers’ that will allow the prediction of the course of MS, so neurologists can make a more accurate prognosis for the person with MS.
The team working at the SLCMSR is making excellent progress and the database is now large enough to produce preliminary results.
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