NHS rolls out “speedy” MS injection

Thousands of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be offered a new 10-minute injection that can help slow progression of the disease, NHS England says.

The medicine, called ocrelizumab, is normally given as an infusion through a vein – a process that can take up to four hours in hospital.

The new way to give the drug will help free up patients’ and doctors’ time, health chiefs say.

Ocrelizumab can help halt the symptoms of two forms of MS.

The under-the-skin injection has recently been approved by medicines regulators in Great Britain and Europe.

MS affects more than 150,000 people in the UK, with some 135 people diagnosed each week.

The lifelong condition is caused by a person’s immune system mistakenly attacking the protective covering that surrounds nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

Messages travelling along the nerves may become slowed or disrupted.

This can lead to a range of problems including difficulties with eyesight, movement, sensation and balance, and it can cause serious disability.

Ocrelizumab (also known as ocrevus) which is given twice a year, targets a specific part of the immune system, helping to lessen the attack.

It can be used for two forms of the disease – active relapsing MS and early primary progressive MS.

In the most common, relapsing remitting type of MS, the disease waxes and wanes with episodes or flares where MS is active.

In other cases it be progressive, with symptoms gradually worsening.

Nin Sambhi, 39, from Staffordshire, was diagnosed with relapsing MS two years ago.

She currently takes the drug as an infusion but says the injection would make a significant difference to her, allowing her have more time with her young family.

“Ocrelizumab is working well for me right now and making me hopeful for a better and healthier future, but to be able to have an injection would be much more convenient to me,” she said.

“At the moment it takes around four or five hours to have my infusion and the logistics can be really difficult.

“I have two children under 10, so sorting out childcare can be challenging.”

Prof Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, said ocrelizumab had “represented a huge advance in care in recent years” as the first drug able to change the course of MS.

He added: “This new injection will drastically cut the time that regular treatment takes for those living with multiple sclerosis, meaning that thousands of patients can spend less time in hospital while helping free up clinicians’ time to see more patients, as well as [provide] vital capacity on wards.”

The MS Society charity welcomed the decision to license the injections and the greater choice patients will have about how they take their medication.

Ocrelizumab is manufactured by Roche, and was first approved in the UK in 2018.

Other injectable treatments for relapsing MS include ofatumumab, which can be done by patients at home.