War in Ukraine Is Slowing Work on Roche Multiple Sclerosis Drug

(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s war in Ukraine is affecting trials of Roche Holding AG’s latest experimental multiple sclerosis drug, as doctors rush to move patients who have become refugees to new treatment centers. 

The biggest roadblock is in recruiting new patients, said Bill Anderson, Roche’s pharmaceutical unit chief. People from Russia and Ukraine have made up 20% to 30% of the study population in trials of new multiple sclerosis medicines, he said. That’s because of a combination of high rates of the debilitating neurological disease -- which disproportionately affects Caucasians and people in northern latitudes -- and a lack of access to the expensive treatments through regular channels.

“We’ve been working very closely with investigators in Ukraine to try to locate the patients, if they’re still in Ukraine, to make sure that they can get access to therapy in Ukraine,” Anderson said in a conference call with journalists after the company released its first-quarter sales figures. 

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The Swiss drugmaker is trying to ensure that patients who have left the country can still be treated elsewhere, Anderson said. 

Multiple sclerosis is a core piece of the growth strategy for Roche. Analysts predict its best-selling drug, Ocrevus, will generate more than $6 billion in revenue this year. 

Due to the war, Roche is opening additional sites outside Russia and Ukraine to study an experimental treatment called fenebrutinib, which is in advanced tests for two of the main types of MS. The company started a broad late-stage trial program for the medicine in 2020. In a sign of the drug’s potential, Roche is pitting it against Ocrevus in a study of primary-progressive MS. Five years ago, Ocrevus became the first medicine approved to treat that form of the disease. 

Roche said it’s reviewing the impact of the war and displacement on the timeline of the clinical trials, which were supposed to release results in 2025. 

After Russia invaded Ukraine, Roche joined the broader pharmaceutical industry in halting recruitment of new research patients in Russia. It had been running 71 studies in the country. 

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