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About 400,000 Americans have multiple sclerosis. Now, researchers are granting them a longtime wish: drugs, to slow down the disease, that can be taken orally. Up to now, those drugs have had to be injected.
We have our story from NPR's Richard Knox.
RICHARD KNOX: Many patients would love to take a pill instead of an injection to slow down the progress of MS and put off disability. That's why Dr. John Richert of the National MS Society says reports of two such drugs, in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, are big news for these patients. The studies were funded by the drug makers. Richert says the new medicines will be a big improvement.
Dr. JOHN RICHERT (National MS Society): What we've had available the last 16 to 17 years has made a big difference and what we have coming on board now, these are going to make even a larger difference. It's really an important advance.
KNOX: That's because they'll be easier to take.
Dr. RICHERT: People will be more prone to take them early, more prone to stay on the drugs.
KNOX: And it looks like the new pills are better. They reduce the number of flare-ups by more than half. Current drugs only reduce them by about a third. When patients suffer a relapse, their symptoms get worse. It reflects the nerve damage that's going on. Jeffrey Babin was diagnosed with MS nearly seven years ago, when he was 39. It shook his world.
Professor JEFFREY BABIN (University of Pennsylvania): This is a very scary disease and when you have an episode, it is one of the most life-changing and life-reevaluating events.
KNOX: Babin is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He's been free of scary MS relapses for several years now. It might be due to a drug called Copaxone, one of a half dozen that can slow the course of MS. He's grateful for the drug, but he has to inject it every day.
Prof. BABIN: Injections are no fun. Nobody likes to inject themselves. You know, in my case, I wouldn't say that there are any major side effects, but I do get these painful welts at the injection sites.
KNOX: Something he'd be happy to do without. The new pills could be the answer. Dr. Peter Calabresi, of Johns Hopkins Medical School, is an author of one new study. He's excited about the new drugs, but he's cautious.
Dr. PETER CALABRESI (Johns Hopkins University): I'm happy to have a new choice, especially a pill. I think we also need to be careful and not use it too abruptly or too easily.
KNOX: Calabresi says many people think of pills as safer than injections.
Dr. CALABRESI: In reality, these are extremely potent pills that have the potential to cause a variety of serious side effects.
KNOX: Such as skin cancers, vision problems and dangerous infections. That's happened before. The MS drug Tysabri was pulled from the market after some patients got rare brain infections. It was later reintroduced with strict monitoring requirements. In light of that experience, federal regulators may go slow with the two new drugs, called fingolimod and cladribine. Jeffrey Babin, the Pennsylvania MS patient says he will, too.
Prof. BABIN: In spite of the fact that I hate injections, I probably would not leap at the first pill that comes to market. You want to be careful to jump into something new and risk the side effects from something that you haven't tried before.
KNOX: Meanwhile, approval of another new MS drug may come soon. That drug, called fampridine, doesn't prevent the nerve damage of MS, but in about a third of patients it makes their damaged nerves work better so they can walk better.
Richard Knox, NPR News.