When it comes to MS, there are many areas of unmet need.
But there is perhaps one area that stands out above all others – progressive MS. Despite the great gains we have made over the past two decades, we still have no truly effective therapies for either primary or secondary progressive MS.
That’s why we are so determined to address this area of unmet need.
Over the past few years, we have contributed to a global collaboration that is helping fast-track research that will lead to effective medications for progressive MS.
That collaboration is driven by ‘The Big Six’, high-impact MS organisations that support and drive MS research, the National MS Society (USA), the MS Society UK, the Canadian MS Society, the Italian and Danish MS societies and MS Australia.
Working together as the International Progressive MS Alliance, and leveraging research funds to add to our own, the Alliance has invested $43 million AUD to date, with this growing to $108 million by 2025.
With a strong commitment to embedding the voice of people living with MS into all that it does, the funding is applied to three key areas:
- understand, prevent and reverse progression
- speed up and improve clinical trials
- improve wellbeing.
Much is happening, with an announcement this week that the Alliance is investing $5.5 million to support the next phase of a collaborative network led by Dr Francisco Quintana, of Harvard Medical School, to further develop promising compounds that target critical disease activities that drive progressive MS and brain injury.
The Alliance website provides more details about all of the projects that have been funded – including work in Australia – and plans for the future.
All this work is made possible because of the donations to MS research made here and across the world. None of this work would be possible without you.
