Consistent Real-World Efficacy of Ofatumumab Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis: Jason Freeman, MD, MBA
The medial director of Novartis talked about findings from a real-world study assessing ofatumumab treatment for multiple sclerosis presented at the 2024 ACTRIMS Forum. [WATCH TIME: 3 minutes]
WATCH TIME: 3 minutes
“Sometimes there's pushback in the community to say that [ofatumumab] worked in a clinical trial but let's see what happens when you get to patients who are just out there in the community. I think this is part of that evidence that says to your average clinician that [the treatment] not only works in that very controlled environment, but it can work just about anywhere.”
Ofatumumab (Kesimpta; Novartis), an FDA-approved anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, has demonstrated efficacy in reducing incidence of relapse for multiple sclerosis (MS) in prior research. In a new retrospective cohort study using U.S. administrative claims data, findings showed that ofatumumab reduced the incidence of relapses among a real-world sample of patients with MS, which was consistent with the treatment’s strong efficacy displayed in previous clinical trials.1 These results on real-world data suggest ofatumumab’s efficacy in reducing relapse can be applied to a broader population of patients with MS outside of clinical trials.
These findings were presented at the 2024 Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum, February 29 to March 2, by lead author Ming-Hui (Mindy) Tai, PhD, director of health economics and outcomes research at Novartis. Investigators divided the study period into a 12-month pre- and at least 12-month post-index period. Annualized relapse rate was assessed using negative binomial regression with an offset for person-years and compared between the pre- and post-index periods. In the pre-index period, 45% and 23% of the patients included (n = 342) received low- and high-efficacy disease-modifying therapies (DMT), respectively, while 33% did not receive any DMT.
Jason Freeman, MD, MBA, a neurologist and medical director at Novartis, sat down with NeurologyLive® at the forum to further discuss the results from this presented analysis. He talked about how patients with MS, including those who were naive to the therapy, responded to ofatumumab in the real-world study. He also spoke about the key findings regarding the reduction in annualized relapse rates across different patient cohorts. In addition, Freeman shared his insight on the study in what it provides for clinicians concerned about the therapy's effectiveness outside of clinical trial settings.
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