Tareen Rahman :
World Multiple Sclerosis Day (MS Day) will be observed on May 27 as a mark of showing solidarity with people living with MS around the world.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) that disrupts the normal functioning of the brain, optic nerve and spinal cord. The evolution of MS results in an increasing loss of both physical (e.g. difficulty with walking) and cognitive (e.g. problems with mental tasks or memory) function. This has a substantial negative impact on the approximately 2.3 million people worldwide affected by MS, a disease that begins in early adulthood, most often between the ages of 20 and 40.
The loss of physical and cognitive function is driven by two main types of damage that both contribute to widespread loss of neurons (nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that transmit impulses): discrete inflammatory lesions, focal damage, in the brain that can clinically manifest as relapses; and ongoing, more diffuse damage that starts early in the disease and causes the progressive loss of brain tissue, including neurons, and over time is associated with both physical and cognitive problems
Novartis is committed to the research and development of new treatment options to offer the right treatment to the right patient at the right time, to meet patients’ needs at every stage of disease with innovative and targeted drugs.
In addition to its ongoing development program for Gilenya in primary progressive MS (PPMS), pediatric MS and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIPD), the Novartis MS portfolio includes Extavia® (interferon beta-1b for subcutaneous injection).
