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Top Clinical Takeaways
- Cladribine tablets demonstrated a high rate of no evidence of disease activity over 4 years, confirming the treatment's long-term efficacy in patients with relapsing MS.
- The relapse rates and disability progression remained low, with an annualized qualified relapse rate of 0.08 during the extension period.
- The safety profile of cladribine remained consistent with prior studies, with no new safety concerns emerging over the 4-year follow-up period.
Among the 219 patients enrolled, the annualized qualified relapse rate (ARR) was 0.09 (95% CI, 0.06-0.12) for the parent study and 0.08 (95% CI, 0.06-0.11) for the extension period. Additional findings showed that the ARR was 0.09 (95% CI, 0.07-0.11) over 4 years with cladribine tablets. De Stefano and colleagues noted that these produced efficacy results were consistent with the results observed in the treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced subgroups.
In terms of safety, investigators observed that 142 patients (64.8%) reported at least 1 adverse event (AE) during the extension study, with 94.4% of these considered mild to moderate in severity. Additionally, authors noted that 13 patients had at least 1 serious AE (5.9%), and 3 of the patients had at least 1 any serious treatment-related AE (1.4%). Overall, researchers reported that the long-term safety profile of cladribine tablets was consistent with earlier safety data, showing no new safety signals observed.
An additional analysis from MAGNIFY-MS presented at ECTRIMS 2024 suggested that treatment with cladribine tablets results in low overall disability accrual, as measured by progression independent of relapse activity (PIRA), relapse-associated worsening (RAW), and confirmed disability accumulation (CDA).2 Presented by lead author De Stafano and colleagues, the data showed a PRIA-free rate of 93.3% (17 events) at month 24 based on EDSS scoring. Additionally, CDA-free and RAW-free rates were reported as 91.7% (21 events) and 98.4% (4 events), respectively, at 24 months.
When exploring the composite PIRA score—defined as the presence of 6-month confirmed disability progression (CDP), or 20% confirmed progression on either the timed 25-foot walk test (T25FW) or 9-hole peg test (9HPT)—the rates of freedom from cPIRA progression were still high, at 85% (38 events). When considering the composites of CDA and RAW freedom, rates were similarly high, at 82.7% (44 events) and 97.3% (7 events).
All told, the analysis included 270 patients, of whom 117 were treatment-naïve and 153 were treatment-experienced. Of the full cohort, 66.7% (n = 180) were women, and the mean age was 37.7 years (SD, 9.8). There were 66 patients (24.4%; 28 treatment-naïve, 38 treatment-experienced) who had a baseline EDSS score above 3, and the mean time since disease onset was 7.1 years (SD, 7.1) for the full cohort (3.7 [SD, 4.6] for treatment-naïve, 9.7 [SD, 7.6] for treatment-experienced).
In total, 17 patients met the criteria for composite PIRA on T25FW, 13 of whom were those with prior treatment experience; and when considering progression by age group, T25FW was a major contributor for those both under the age of 40 years (12 of 26) and over (5 of 12). Six-month CDP was a contributor of similar import, with 17 patients in the full cohort meeting those criteria, and similar numbers to those of T25FW across age groups (under 40: 11 of 26; over 40: 6 of 12). The 9HPT had a smaller contribution across these assessed subgroups.
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REFERENCES
1. De Stefano N, Vermersch P, Wiendl H, et al. Long-term effectiveness of cladribine tablets over 4 years in relapsing multiple sclerosis: Results from the MAGNIFY-MS Extension study. Presented at: 2024 ECTRIMS; September 18-20; Copenhagen, Denmark. Abstract P349.
2. De Stafano N, Wiendl H, Barkhof F, et al. Low rate of progression independent of relapse in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis treated with cladribine tablets. Presented at: ECTRIMS Congress; September 18-20, 2024; Copenhagen, Denmark. Abstract P326.