An Overview of the Efficacy and Safety of Ozanimod for the Treatment of Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex disease of the central nervous system that can cause permanent disability in young adults. A large armamentarium is available for its management and is increasing over time. Ozanimod is an oral drug belonging to the sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor (S1PR) modulator family recently approved in different countries for MS with active disease. It selectively modulates S1PR1 and S1PR5 to prevent autoreactive lymphocytes from entering the central nervous system (CNS), where they can determine inflammation and neurodegeneration. Ozanimod was tested in one Phase II and two Phase III pivotal trials and was shown to be effective and well tolerated. Moreover, further investigations, including comparative trials with other S1P modulators and MS disease-modifying drugs, are needed to better define placement in MS treatment. Furthermore, ozanimod is currently under evaluation for inflammatory bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, in international phase III studies. This article retraces the itinerary leading to the approval of ozanimod for MS treatment and its peculiarities and potentiality inside the S1PR modulator family.

Keywords:

• S1PR modulators
• disease modifying therapy
• brain atrophy
• safety

Disclosure

Nothing to declare related to the present article. MF has nothing to declare. LL serves on scientific advisory boards and received honoraria for speaking from Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Genzyme and Roche. JF serves on scientific advisory boards and received honoraria for speaking from Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Genzyme and Roche. EC serves on scientific advisory boards and received honoraria for speaking and scientific research support from Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Genzyme, Roche and Teva. The authors reported no other potential conflicts of interest for this work.