For many people with MS, their initial brush with disease was a single episode, with symptoms suggestive of central nervous system lesions, that usually dissipates. Known as clinically isolated syndrome, these events can be the harbinger of a later MS diagnosis, although that is not always the case. The researchers in the PreCISe (Presenting with a Clinically Isolated Syndrome) study group, encompassing doctors at 80 sites in 16 countries, recruited 481 subjects who experienced such an isolated event. The study was funded by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries of Israel, which makes and markets glatiramer acetate as Copaxone.

Study participants received either 20 milligrams of Copaxone via injection daily or a placebo. The researchers found that those on the glatiramer acetate treatment had a 45 percent reduced risk of converting to full MS, compared to the placebo group, over the three years of the trial. Of those participants who did progress to MS, those in the Copaxone group took more than twice as long (772 days) than placebo recipients (336 days) to do so.—Amber Dance.

Reference:
Comi G, Martinelli V, Rodegher M, Moiola L, Bajenaru O, Carra A, Elovaara I, Fazekas F, Hartung HP, Hillert J, King J, Komoly S, Lubetzki C, Montalban X, Myhr KM, Ravnborg M, Rieckmann P, Wynn D, Young C, Filippi M; for the PreCISe study group. Effect of glatiramer acetate on conversion to clinically definite multiple sclerosis in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (PreCISe study): a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet. 2009 Oct 6. Abstract