Today is the 12th International Rare Disease Day. Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge that took the world by storm in 2014 and sparked the attention of the community to rare diseases including acromegaly? Teriflunomide, a new class 3.1 drug developed by CGeneTech, has recently officially launched a clinical trial for consistency evaluation against multiple sclerosis similar to acromegaly, which is expected to bring gospel to domestic multiple sclerosis patients!

Multiple sclerosis is the most common type of central nervous demyelinating disease, characterized by speech, vision, motor and sensory impairments and cerebral neuropathies. It was reported in 2013 that scientists at Hopkins found that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or what we commonly call acromegaly, may have something in common with multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis researchers may be able to interface with some of the same treatments that slow the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, thus opening the door to a treatment for acromegaly.

Currently, multiple sclerosis affects more than 350,000 people in the United States, 40-50,000 domestically, and approximately 2.5 million worldwide. Symptoms usually appear in the 20s and 40s, with twice as many women as men suffering from the disease, and most patients are in the relapse phase of the disease. The goal of treating MS is to reduce the duration and worsening of symptoms associated with relapses, prevent the incidence of relapses, and delay the accumulation of the disease.

The development of drugs for the treatment of rare diseases has not been forgotten by society. Many countries around the world, especially some developed countries, have generally established systems to encourage the development of therapeutic drugs for rare diseases.In 2013, the State Drug Administration issued [2013] No. 37, which clearly prioritized the review of innovative and generic drugs for the treatment of rare diseases.

On May 22, 2018, the Health Planning Commission included multiple sclerosis in the rare disease catalog, which accelerated the approval process of related drugs. Therefore, the drug independently developed by Centurion Technology only needs to complete the drug consistency evaluation on healthy human bodies before it can apply for marketing and sales. According to Dr. Qiang Yu, CEO of CGeneTech, the completed clinical pre-experiments have met the standards, and the API and formulation levels are the same as those of the original product, and all experimental content is expected to be completed this year. At present, there is no similar product in China except for the import of Teriflunomide from the original research manufacturer Sanofi. Teriflunomide from CGeneTech will be of the same quality as the foreign original research and at a favorable price to relieve the pain of domestic MS patients.