The cost of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in the US has increased since 2020, placing an increasing financial strain on patients, their families, and the healthcare system, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s recent ‘Multiple Sclerosis: Seven-Market Drug Forecast and Market Analysis to 2030 – Update’ report reveals that for 19 DMTs marketed for MS in the US, the average annual cost of therapy increased by 9% between 2020 and 2022. However, some of the DMTs, such as Biogen’s Tysabri, Sanofi’s Lemtrada and Novartis’ Gilenya and Mayzent, saw their annual cost of therapy rise by as much as 12%. A similar trend of price increases was also seen for MS generics and biosimilars.

Barbora Salcman, Neurology Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “MS is a primary autoimmune disease leading to neurological disability and affecting sensory, visual, motor, and autonomic systems. Currently, most patients face the prospect of lifelong treatment, with MS medications as the main objective of available DMTs is to reduce the frequency of relapses and delay the accumulation of disability. However, they cannot provide a cure and offer very limited impact on halting disease progression.”

Key opinion leaders (KOLs) interviewed by GlobalData emphasized that the high cost of DMTs for MS can have a major impact on patients, their families, and wider society. This economic burden may deter some patients from seeking treatment, while others might decide to stop their treatment altogether.

KOLs further believe that there is a large unmet need for curative therapies in MS, especially for the agents that would be able to stop the progress of neurodegeneration, such as remyelination therapies, of which there are several in early-stage development.

While KOLs are generally optimistic about the prospects of curative therapies gaining approval in the long term, they acknowledge that the route to this is long, and do not expect curative therapies to enter the market within the next few years. Notably, none of the late-stage agents in development are curative therapies, and their main role is to reduce disease progression and the number of relapses experienced by patients.

Salcman concludes: “The development and approval of safe and reliable curative therapies would be a major breaking point in the treatment of MS. Not only would this provide patients with a higher standard of living, but it would also significantly reduce the economic burden of the disease on patients and wider society.”