Biogen Patents New M.S. Treatment

A drug patented by a Cambridge technology company dramatically lessens the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, a recently-released study shows.

Dr. Lawrence Jacobs, a professor at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, announced Monday that the drug, beta interferon, prolongs the non-chronic stage in multiple sclerosis patients by as much as 75 percent.

The announcement comes at the end of a four-year study of the drug.

Beta interferon was patented about 10 years ago by Cambridge's Biogen, Inc.

In Jacobs' experiment, 301 patients with multiple sclerosis, a debilitating disease in which nerves slowly deteriorate, were given either beta interferon or a placebo.

The patients on beta interferon had a disease progression rate 40 percent slower than placebo patients. The exacerbation rate of the disease in patients who used beta interferon was also reduced by a third.

The study also found that the drug prolongs the first of multiple sclerosis' two stages. And since the second stage of the disease is usually terminal, beta interferon effectively increases the time it takes for severe disability to occur, the study found.

"The drug, beta interferon, is the first product that has ever been developed that slows down the progression of disability," said Amy S. Hedison, the director of industrial relations at Biogen.

Beta interferon has not been yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Hedison said that Biogen plans to file with the FDA in the beginning of 1995.

But even in light of the new results, some scientists raised objections.

Medical School Associate Professor of Neurology David A. Hafler said he was under the impression that beta interferon was the same as betaseron, another drug produced by Biogen.

"I don't expect beta interferon to be better than betaseron experimentally," Hafler said in an interview yesterday. He said the drugs only seemed to differ in the way they were manufactured.

But Biogen's Hedison said beta interferon causes fewer side effects than betaseron and can be taken in smaller doses.

"We think it makes a big difference because you use less of it, and you feel better," Hedison said.

Medical School Associate Professor of Neurology Howard L. Weiner agreed that beta interferon is an improvement--but not a dramatic one--over betaseron.

"The results confirmed that beta interferon has mild to moderate effects," Weiner said.

Weiner also acknowledged that the side effects from beta interferon are significantly tamer than those produced by betaseron.

Jacobs, who heads the neurology department at SUNY Buffalo, led the new study of beta interferon. Five institutions participated in the research, including the Ellen Multiple Sclerosis Center in Cleveland, the University of Oregon, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the University of Colorado.