FRIDAY, May 19, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Results from the first study of long-term use of the drug Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) may bring good news for people with multiple sclerosis, researchers say.
Patients with relapsing remitting MS who took Copaxone for 10 years had less disability than patients who stopped taking the drug, the study concluded.
The report appears in the June issue of the journal Multiple Sclerosis.
Copaxone is a synthetic compound made up of four amino acids found in myelin, the substance that surrounds neurons and is gradually destroyed in MS. The drug is believed to stimulate T cells in the body's immune system to change from harmful, inflammatory agents to beneficial, anti-inflammatory agents that work to reduce inflammation at lesion sites.
The study, led by Dr. Corey C. Ford, an associate professor of neurology and co-director of the MIND Imaging Center at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, looked at 232 MS patients who were started on Copaxone and followed for 10 years
Using the Expanded Disability Status Scale, patients were monitored every six months, including 50 patients who were taken off the drug. Most patients who stayed on Copaxone remained ambulatory, while those who were taken off the drug had greater disability, Ford's team found.
In fact, 62 percent of those who stayed on the drug showed stable or improved Expanded Disability Status Scale scores, compared with 28 percent of the patients who stopped taking Copaxone, the researchers reported.
More information
For more on Copaxone, head to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
