CCMR One Clinical Drug Trial update

box of medication with blue tablets

October 2020: Trial results presented at European Committee for Treatment and Research in MS on September 26th 2020

The "CCMR One" clinical trial, a randomised double blind placebo controlled study whose purpose was to assess whether the drug bexarotene can promote remyelination, presented its phase 2a trial results at ECTRIMS (European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis) on 26th September 2020. Results from the Cambridge University study showed that bexarotene, a drug developed to treat cancer, is able to repair myelin in people with relapsing MS.

The Anne Rowling Clinic recruited some of the participants that took part in the trial in Scotland.

In the trial, vision tests and some types of MRI scans showed that bexarotene could repair myelin. Participants in the trial did experience some serious side effects, including underactive thyroid gland and high levels of fats in the blood. This means that bexarotene won't be taken forward into a Phase 3 trial.  Lessons learned will now be taken forward into new clinical trials. 

Co-investigator Professor Siddharthan Chandran, Anne Rowling Clinic Director, added: "We now understand much more about myelin repair and are in a significantly better position to measure remyelination in clinical trials. While this work was taking place, further lab research identified new and more tolerable treatments that could repair myelin, and we look forward to these being tested in trials imminently."

Professor Alasdair Coles from the University of Cambridge, who led the research, said: "The lessons we've learned are incredibly exciting, as we now have further concrete evidence that remyelination in humans is possible. This discovery gives us confidence that we will stop MS, and will swiftly be taken forward into further studies trialling other potential new myelin repair treatments."

Related links

https://www-neurosciences.medschl.cam.ac.uk/jones-coles-group/clinical-trials/

Funder(s)

Anne Rowling Clinic, Chief Scientist Office, MS Society

 

Image courtesy of Getty Images

This article was published on: Tuesday, October 06, 2020
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