Biogen Idec Inc.’s experimental drug for multiple sclerosis showed signs that it could help repair nerve damage in patients’ eyes, a tentatively positive step for a drug aimed at reversing progression of the disease.
In a mid-stage trial of 82 patients, Biogen’s drug showed a 34 percent improvement in those who completed the study. The result fell a hair below the threshold for statistical significance. Including patients who didn’t complete the study, results were positive but didn’t reach statistical significance, Biogen said today in a statement.
Biogen climbed 2.2 percent to $361 in early trading. The company, based in Cambridge, gets most of its revenue from multiple sclerosis drugs like Tecfidera and is pushing for new treatments for the disease, which affects 2.3 million people worldwide. There are no approved cures for multiple sclerosis, only drugs that help suppress the immune system or manage symptoms.
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“This is a huge hope,” said Tim Coetzee, chief research officer at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, in a telephone interview before Biogen’s news was released. “Rebuilding the nervous system is the next frontier of how we tackle treating MS, and for many people who live with MS, strategies like this are a source of hope that they could get some function back.”
Multiple sclerosis causes the immune system to attack myelin, a fatty substance that coats and protects nerve fibers. Patients can experience tingling, problems with walking and degrading vision. Their symptoms get worse as MS progresses.
Biogen’s drug, called BIIB033, targets a protein in the the central nervous system that regulates myelin production. The antibody could spur the myelin to regrow and reverse the progression of the disease.
Biogen’s mid-stage trial tested the drug’s effects on optic neuritis, inflammation of the optic nerve often caused by multiple sclerosis. Interpreting the data may not be clear cut, according to Eric Schmidt, an analyst at Cowen & Co.
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“Optic neuritis is really just a ‘proof of biology’ indication for MS,” he said in an e-mail before Biogen’s announcement. “We really don’t know how data from one indication will translate to the other.” More studies that directly measure its effects on multiple sclerosis are needed before any conclusions can be drawn, Schmidt said.
While patients in the trial generally tolerated the drug well, two patients had hypersensitivity reactions around the time the drug was infused, and one had an elevation in enzymes that can cause liver damage, which resolved itself when the patient stopped using the medicine.