MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Cortrophin Gel, Simvastatin, COVID-19 Treatments

Cortrophin Gel Now Available in US at AllianceRx Walgreens Prime

Cortrophin Gel is similar to Achtar Gel, which was, until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent re-approval of Cortrophin, the only repository corticotropin injection available in the U.S. Cortrophin Gel is a naturally produced cortisol that is expected to reduce inflammation and help ease multiple sclerosis (MS) relapses.

Cortrophin Gel (repository corticotropin injection), an injectable gel medication approved for acute flares in multiple sclerosis (MS) and other chronic autoimmune diseases, is now available through the AllianceRx Walgreens Prime specialty pharmacy to patients living in the U.S.

First approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the 1950s for a range of autoimmune diseases, the medication had fallen out of use for a few decades.

It was relaunched earlier this year by ANI Pharmaceuticals.

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Results From Trial of Simvastatin for SPMS Expected in 2025

I’ve been pushing for more treatments for people with progressive MS for years, so I have to take note when there’s news about a new secondary progressive MS (SPMS) medication that’s being tested. Actually, it’s an old medication, but its use for MS patients is what’s new.

Simvastatin is a statin, a class of medication that is widely used to help lower cholesterol. Besides that, statins have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties that make them good candidates for treating MS. A previous Phase 2 study tested it against a placebo in 140 SPMS patients for two years. Results suggested that the treatment lessened brain atrophy and slowed the progression of physical disability and cognitive decline.

Fingers crossed that this cholesterol medication will also be useful for treating SPMS.

MS-STAT2, a clinical trial testing whether the cholesterol-lowering medication simvastatin might slow disability progression in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS), has finished enrollment.

A total of 964 people are now in the trial (NCT03387670), making it the largest progressive MS trial not run by a commercial company (MS-STAT2 is sponsored by University College London). Results from the trial are expected in 2025.

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3 New COVID-19 Treatments Now Available to MS Patients in UK

In the U.K., people with MS are considered to be at higher risk for becoming seriously ill with COVID-19, particularly those on disease-modifying therapies that suppress the immune system. So, they’re eligible for some new treatments, if they’re necessary.

Those MS patients should receive word of their eligibility for these treatments via a letter or email from the National Health Service. All those eligible will be given a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to keep at home so that they can do testing as soon as possible if they develop COVID-19 symptoms. If the PCR test is positive, an expert from an NHS COVID Medicines Delivery Unit will phone to review it and discuss the most appropriate treatment.

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) living in the U.K. are now eligible to receive one of three new treatments for COVID-19 that are meant to prevent serious disease in at-risk populations who tested positive for the virus.

First available under this plan were Regeneron and Roche’s antibody-based therapy Ronapreve (casirivimab/imdevimab), and the antiviral pill Lagevrio (molnupiravir), developed by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD; known as Merck in North America). Xevudy (sotrovimab), an antibody developed by GSK and Vir Biotechnology, also was recently added to the list.

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