Em­bold­ened by a pos­i­tive PhI­II, No­var­tis steers a late-stage BTK in­hibitor in­to a piv­otal MS tri­al

No­var­tis is tak­ing a dig­i­tal turn at the up­com­ing ECTRIMS con­fer­ence with dozens of ab­stracts on its im­munol­o­gy drugs al­ready on the mar­ket. And no­tably, the phar­ma gi­ant is us­ing the oc­ca­sion to an­nounce that its oral BTK in­hibitor remi­bru­ti­nib is be­ing steered in­to a late-stage study on mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis — pit­ting them against some heavy­weight ri­vals.

The an­nounce­ment comes just a week af­ter the Swiss phar­ma gi­ant boast­ed about their drug’s suc­cess against chron­ic spon­ta­neous ur­ticaria, which trig­gers painful swelling, in a Phase IIb tri­al. And af­ter con­sid­er­able spec­u­la­tion in the field, No­var­tis be­lieves it has an­oth­er “best in class” con­tender for block­buster sta­tus in MS.

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