New Drugs Has Promising Results For MS Treatment

(KUTV) Multiple Sclerosis affects more than 400,000 Americans and can strike anytime but it often hits adults in the prime of their lives.

A new drug, however, is promising results for those affected by the disease.

Stephen OMalley, the father of two, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis a neurological disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms can range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. The symptoms usually get worse over time, leaving many patients disabled.

I was scared to death, said OMalley. I went to work at 6:00 in the evening and I was completely blind in one eye six hours later.

While there is no cure for MS, there are effective treatments.

Kate Lodge gets monthly infusions requiring a two hour visit to the hospital. However, there are scary potential side effects, including brain infections.

"The symptoms of brain infection can mirror the symptoms of MS, so you can't know - and so you go into a panic mode, said Lodge.

Doctors realized they needed a treatment that was both an effective therapy as well as tolerated and safe.

And now, that therapy may finally be available in an easy-to-take pill form.

Dr. Robert Fox, Medical Director at the Cleveland Clinics Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis led clinical trials of a new drug, called BG-12, which seems to stop MS in its tracks.

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New Drugs Has Promising Results For MS Treatment