OTTAWA -- New treatment options could be on the horizon for people with multiple sclerosis if regulatory authorities approve two new drugs, said a doctor at the Ottawa Hospital’s MS Clinic.

Neurologist Dr. Mark Freedman participated in promising trials of both fingolimod and cladribine, which are taken orally.

“These drugs do everything. Both have been shown to reduce relapses ... slow down disease progression, and significantly curtail the activity measured on the MRI scan,” Freedman said.

Attacks nervous system

MS is a complex disease that attacks the central nervous system, destroying the ability of nerve cells to communicate with each other, often resulting in debilitating attacks that can hinder one’s ability to see, walk and talk.

There are five approved MS drugs in Canada, which all require injections anywhere from several times a week to daily.

The trials, published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, found both fingolimod and cladribine cut relapse rates in MS patients by 50-60% over two years compared with placebos.

Though research is still ongoing, Freedman said cladribine shows the most promise, as patients may be able to take the drug for two years and never need to do so again.

Cladribine tablets are taken only eight to 20 days over a two-month period, so the patient is medication free for 10 months of the year. Fingolimod, on the other hand, is taken daily.

The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada welcomed the news with guarded optimism because it’s still unclear whether these treatment options will ever be approved.

“With these being oral therapies, they would present an easier method of intake and that is something that would be welcomed from the MS community,” said spokesman Stewart Wong.

If they’re approved, Wong said the organization would lobby the government to make the drugs affordable.

“The issue of course is how safe these drugs are,” Freedman said.

Though he has been treating patients with them for more than five years and they’re commonly used in other treatments — cladribine for hairy cell leukemia and fingolimod in organ transplants — long-term side-effects for MS patients are still unknown.

“It takes a long time to finish studies,” he said.