More than a third of neurologists in the US believe Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors have huge potential as a future treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to findings from a recent Spherix Global Insights’ survey.
BTK inhibitors are small molecules that block the BTK enzyme, which controls how immune B-cells and microglia grow, survive and become activated to help mount an immune response.
These drugs are currently being tested in late-stage clinical trials for relapsing, primary and secondary progressive MS.
Inhibiting BTK is expected to reduce inflammation and nerve cell damage.
Neurologists and MS specialists have expressed increasing enthusiasm for these treatment in recent years, the report found.
However, some remain sceptical about the potential safety and efficacy of these oral therapies.
Spherix said in a press release: “Twice the number of neurologists [emphasised] their anticipated efficacy, rather than favourable safety, as the driver for prescribing this new mechanism of action once it enters the market,”
Survey respondents also expressed an interest in AB Science’s masitinib as a possible treatment for progressive types of MS.
In late November, the FDA placed a partial hold on Genentech’s ongoing Phase 3 clinical programme in the US after two patients experienced elevations in liver enzyme levels, a sign of potential treatment-related liver damage.
Two of the trials are testing fenebrutinib in people with relapsing MS, while FENtrepid is investigating the therapy in primary progressive MS patients.
And in early December, EMD Serono announced a failure to meet main study goals in its two Phase 3 clinical trials of evobrutinib.
Spherix plans to assess if these recent setbacks change perceptions of these two potential medications, the broader class of BTK inhibitors and the entire MS treatment landscape in next year’s suvvey.
Spherix noted that the unfavourable BTK developments “potentially [pave] the way for masitinib to emerge as a standout oral option in the landscape.”
