Fingolimod - first oral drug for MS in the United States

The FDA has licensed Fingolimod as a first-line therapy for people with relapsing-remitting MS. Let's hope it passes through the European Medicine Agency (EMA) with the same ease as the FDA and NICE gives it the thumbs up in the UK; the pessimist in me expects not. I predict that its use will be handcuffed in Europe for patients with highly-active disease (similar to Natalizumab) and for patients intolerant of first-line injectable therapies. I also suspect NICE will make it second-line; however this will depend on how much Novartis charge for the drug.

Click here for Bloomberg's Statement

To see how the drug works please see the following YouTube video:

Click here for YouTube video on Fingolimod's mechanism of action