Fernando Dangond, MD, MBA: Evobrutinib for Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis

“I think [people] are going to be excited because this is an oral treatment, and the first-in-class to show that it works in MS.”

In a phase IIb trial, evobrutinib met the study’s primary end point, significantly reducing the number of T1-gadolinium enhancing (T1-Gd+) lesions in comparison with placebo.

A first-in-class medicine, the highly-specific, oral Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) inhibitor is the first BTK inhibitor to show clinical proof-of-concept in relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS). Thus far, the treatment has also proven well tolerated.

To gather more insight into evobrutinib’s performance in the trial, NeurologyLive sat with Fernando Dangond, MD, MBA, the Head of Global Clinical Development in Neurology at EMD Serono, the therapy’s manufacturer. Dangond, also a study author, noted that the treatment’s dual mechanism of action—targeting both microphages and B cells—is one of its more unique features.

Additionally, at the 34th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) in Berlin, Germany, Dangond shared that he was surprised by the drastic reduction that was observed. Planning for a phase III trial is underway.