TY - JOUR
T1 - An Overview of High-Efficacy Drugs for Multiple Sclerosis
T2 - Gulf Region Expert Opinion
AU - Alroughani, Raed
AU - Inshasi, Jihad Said
AU - Deleu, Dirk
AU - Al-Hashel, Jasem
AU - Shakra, Mustafa
AU - Elalamy, Osama Robin
AU - Shatila, Ahmed Osman
AU - Al-Asmi, Abdullah
AU - Al Sharoqi, Isa
AU - Canibano, Beatriz Garcia
AU - Boshra, Amir
N1 - Funding Information:
The expert group described here met during a meeting organized by and funded by Merck Serono Middle East FZ LTD, an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Editorial assistance was provided by Dr. Rupali Bahri (Medcytes, Dubai) and funded by Merck Serono Middle East FZ LTD. We thank our colleague Prof. Jaume Sastre-Garriga (Neurology-Neuroimmunology Department & Neurorehabilitation Unit Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia [Cemcat]), who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the moderation of the workshop. Merck Serono Middle East FZ LTD will sponsor the journal article processing charge. Merck Serono Middle East FZ LTD funded the study and the article processing charges. All authors had full access to all of the data in this article and take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and accuracy of the data analysis. All named authors meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship for this article, take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, and have given their approval for this version to be published. Amir Boshra is an employee of Merck Serono Middle East FZ LTD. All authors acted as honorary consultants to Merck Serono Middle East FZ LTD as part of the advisory board. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. The datasets during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
PY - 2019/6/1
Y1 - 2019/6/1
N2 - This article discusses the opinions of the multiple sclerosis (MS) experts in the Gulf region on the use of high-efficacy disease-modifying drugs (DMDs; natalizumab, fingolimod, alemtuzumab, cladribine tablets, and ocrelizumab) in clinical practice. The experts reviewed the current literature including pivotal clinical trials and meta-analyses for high-efficacy DMDs, supplemented by the expert opinions on the usage of these DMDs in clinical practice. Several criteria were discussed by the panel based on different efficacy, safety, and convenience attributes. The panel concluded that all the DMDs available for the treatment of MS have benefits and risks, which should be considered while discussing the treatment plan with the patient. It is important to have a personalized approach based on the risk-benefit assessment for each case. Common considerations while choosing treatments include effectiveness, side effects/safety, and convenience/route of administration. Funding: Merck Serono Middle East FZ LTD.
AB - This article discusses the opinions of the multiple sclerosis (MS) experts in the Gulf region on the use of high-efficacy disease-modifying drugs (DMDs; natalizumab, fingolimod, alemtuzumab, cladribine tablets, and ocrelizumab) in clinical practice. The experts reviewed the current literature including pivotal clinical trials and meta-analyses for high-efficacy DMDs, supplemented by the expert opinions on the usage of these DMDs in clinical practice. Several criteria were discussed by the panel based on different efficacy, safety, and convenience attributes. The panel concluded that all the DMDs available for the treatment of MS have benefits and risks, which should be considered while discussing the treatment plan with the patient. It is important to have a personalized approach based on the risk-benefit assessment for each case. Common considerations while choosing treatments include effectiveness, side effects/safety, and convenience/route of administration. Funding: Merck Serono Middle East FZ LTD.
KW - Disease-modifying drugs
KW - Expert opinion
KW - Gulf region
KW - Multiple sclerosis
KW - Neuroimmunology
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U2 - 10.1007/s40120-019-0129-0
DO - 10.1007/s40120-019-0129-0
M3 - Comment/debate
C2 - 30875021
AN - SCOPUS:85071667951
SN - 2193-8253
VL - 8
SP - 13
EP - 23
JO - Neurology and Therapy
JF - Neurology and Therapy
IS - 1
ER -