MS treatment Mavenclad produces up to 15 years of benefits

The benefits of the drug Mavenclad (cladribine) in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) continued for up to 15 years after patients stopped the treatment, in real-world data from the CLASSIC-MS study.

Over half of participants in the clinical trial who received the oral therapy no longer needed more disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) and twice as many continued to be relapse-free after a median average of 10.9 years, compared with people who didn’t take the drug.

Mavenclad works by reducing the number of immune cells in the bloodstream causing nerve damage and inflammation in MS.

The study also found that more people treated with Mavenclad weren’t using a wheelchair or were not confined to bed when compared to those who took a placebo – 90% vs 77.8%.

The trial met another long-term disability goal by demonstrating people who took Mavenclad were more likely to not need walking assistance than those who took a placebo – 81.2% vs 75.6%.