Buffalo research leads to oral MS drug

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Western New York has one of the highest concentrations of multiple sclerosis in this country. Now there is new hope for patients battling the devastating disease.

Dawn Collier-Hezel has had multiple sclerosis for 17 years. She's taken many medications, mostly by injection, most recently a subcutaneous injection three times a week.

"It's not as bad as the IM injections, but it still causes welts and bruising and it burns sometimes going in and it's not the most comfortable thing," she said.

The marks left by her most recent injection are still visible 18 hours later. They're often more swollen and discolored. Like almost all MS patients, she longs for something else.

"I'm waiting for that oral medication so that I don't have to stress over the injection all the time and the side effects that the injection actually causes," Collier-Hezel said.

And she may not have to wait much longer. A new pill called "BG-12" has been in clinical trials, and the results of two major studies were just published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The drug worked.

Dr. Bianca Weinstock-Guttman of the Jacobs Neurologic Institute said, "And it showed significant improvement with 50 percent decrease in number of relapses versus placebo, significant benefit on MRI."

MRI scans show the MS lesions, called "plaques." The drug significantly reduced the number of those. Dr. Guttman has been working with MS patients in Buffalo for a long time.

"We were there when we didn't have anything to offer. Today we have multiple options and becoming more and more efficient," Dr. Guttman noted.

And now, it will be more tolerable.

Collier-Hezel said, "The oral medication, I'm excited about; I can't wait until it passes and can come out."

As the new studies show that the drug is effective and has very few side effects, she won't have long to wait. It's likely to be approved and on the market by early next year.