Novartis, Merck KGaA see opportunity in select pockets of MS patients

As companies continue to pile into the multiple sclerosis market with new therapies, Novartis and Merck KGaA are dissecting the landscape to define populations for their newly launched drugs. While the former is staking out territory in advanced forms of the disease, the latter is hoping to gain uptake among patients who don’t respond to available therapies.

Although oral therapies have changed the outlook for newly diagnosed patients, about 80% of those with the mildest form, relapsing remitting MS (RRMS), will eventually progress to active secondary progressive MS (SPMS), a more severe form of the disease in which relapses are coupled with marked progression to disability...