Use of glatiramer acetate between 2010-2015: effectiveness, safety and reasons to start GA as first or second line treatment in Swiss multiple sclerosis patients

What Was Tested

This observational study paper looks at Glatiramer Acetate in the context of multiple sclerosis.

Glatiramer acetate (GA) is one of the first therapies approved for multiple sclerosis (MS).

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

One year, prospective, multicentre, observational study performed between 2010 and 2015 in consecutive MS and clinically isolated syndrome patients starting GA as a first ("naïve") or second ("switcher") line therapy.

Primary endpoint was the annualized relapse rate (ARR) over 1 year of GA treatment (from baseline, V1, to 12 months, V2) in naïve and switchers compared to previous 24 months.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as multicenter.

Running at several centres spread the Glatiramer Acetate study over different clinics and patient groups.

The timeline in the abstract includes 1 year.

Secondary endpoints were: EDSS changes between V1 and V2, frequency of adverse events, and reasons for prescribing and discontinuing GA.

Baseline demographics and clinical characteristics were retrieved from medical records, and outcome measures were documented at V1 and V2, and in case of clinical worsening.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cohort Studies, Glatiramer Acetate, Immunosuppressive Agents, Multiple Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting, Outcome Assessment, Health Care and Recurrence.

Author keywords: CIS, GA, Relapsing remitting and Therapy.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a multicenter study of Glatiramer Acetate in people with multiple sclerosis over 1 year.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2019 (BMC neurology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Glatiramer Acetate compound page, Multiple sclerosis research.