Multiple Sclerosis Discovery: The Podcast Of The Ms Discovery Forum

[intro music]   Hello, and welcome to Episode Twenty-Nine of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with Dr. Monica Carson on funding research in MS. But to begin, here is a brief summary of some of the latest developments on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   Glatiramer acetate and the interferon betas appear to be clinically similar, according to a new study in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal. This study follows on the heels of a Cochrane meta-analysis we covered earlier in 2014 that found similar results. Instead of performing a meta-analysis, though, the researchers of the MSJ article used data from over 3,000 patients in the MS Base database. They found very little difference in annualized relapse rates over 10 years, though glatiramer acetate and subcutaneous interferon beta 1-a did eke out a statistical win over the other interferons.   Together, MSDF and our non-profit publisher, Accelerated C