CONy 2020 | Future avenues of MS treatment
Gavin Giovannoni, MBBCh, PhD, FCP, FRCP, FRCPath, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK, discusses the future of multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment. Currently, anti-inflammatory medication is capable of suppressing relapses, but it has hit a ceiling. In order to go beyond and treat progressive disease, combination therapy needs to be considered. Additionally, there are other areas to focus treatment on such as halting the degeneration of axons, axon remyelination, axonal sprouting, and synaptogenesis. The MS field can also learn from other areas, including spinal cord injury, on ways to encourage regeneration. This interview took place during the Virtual World Congress on Controversies in Neurology (CONy) 2020.
Disclosures
Over the last 20 years, Professor Giovannoni has received personal compensation for participating on Advisory Boards in relation to multiple sclerosis clinical trial design, trial steering committees and data and safety monitoring committees from Abbvie, Actelion, Almirall, Atara Bio, Bayer-Schering Healthcare, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Canbex, Celgene, Eisai, Elan, Fiveprime, Genentech, GSK, GW Pharma, Ironwood, Janssen, Merck, Merck-Serono, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi-Genzyme, Synthon BV, Teva, UCB Pharma and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Professor Giovannoni is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders and chairs the MS Brain Health initiative, MS Academy and triMS.online conference. He has previously been a member of the multiple sclerosis and related disorders specialist advisory group of the Association of British Neurologists and an ECTRIMS representative. He is a director of Oxford Health Policy Forum, a nonprofit social enterprise.
