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Expert Consortium for Progression in MS Clinical Trials

Doctor showing someone a web page on a laptop
Lead researcher:
Multiple researchers
Based at:
Multiple universities
MS Society funding:
£325,709 to date
Status:
Complete

About the project

Currently there are no treatments for most people with progressive MS. We’re trying to change that. But to do this as quickly as possible we need to run more efficient clinical trials of promising new treatments.

Our ambition was to set up a clinical trials platform to speed up the development of treatments that can slow, and ultimately stop, MS. Octopus is now making that ambition a reality.

To design and deliver Octopus, leading clinicians and scientists from across the UK came together. They formed an Expert Consortium made up of two teams.

  • One team focussed on identifying the most promising treatments to go into the trial first. They gathered information on a huge number of repurposed drugs they thought could also help in MS. Repurposed drugs are those already licensed as safe and effective for other conditions.
  • The second team designed the actual trial and helped set up the infrastructure. Testing many drugs at the same time is complicated. Finding new ways to measure whether a potential treatment is working earlier was important. And we needed to make sure we could join up as many clinics and hospitals across the UK as possible, so we can involve as many people with MS as possible.

Both teams have now published papers in scientific journals.

Read the treatment selection paper

Read the trial design paper

How will it help people with MS?

People with MS have told us that finding treatments to slow and stop disability progression in MS is their top priority. Octopus will help us achieve this more quickly and efficiently by testing more potential treatments faster and more cheaply.

The difference you can make

We want to stop MS. You can help us achieve that aim by supporting research like this – research that might, one day, lead to more effective and tailored treatments for people with MS.