Multiple Sclerosis Discovery: The Podcast Of The Ms Discovery Forum

[intro music]   Hello, and welcome to Episode Twenty-two 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. Paul Matthews about the Optimize project in the United Kingdom. But to begin, here’s a brief summary of some of the latest developments on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   Some good news came from the pharmaceutical company Genzyme. On November 14th at 9 pm Eastern time, the FDA approved the drug alemtuzumab – trade name Lemtrada – for relapsing forms of MS. The FDA previously rejected the drug in 2013 due to concerns about study design and side effects. There is still some concern over safety, though, so the company is releasing it to only a limited number of patients. The prescription will also come with a host of other drugs to protect against harmful side effects. Researchers aren’t quite sure how the drug works, but it appears to target monocytes, T cells, and B cells.   Researchers anno