Multiple sclerosis pills could be in UK pharmacies in two years

A leading charity described the development as "great news" for people with the auto-immune disease, who currently have to undergo regular injections.

Two rival medicines are going head to head in the race to be the world's first oral treatments for MS.

They have different modes of action, but both dampen the immune response that causes MS-related nerve damage.

One, fingolimod, is a once-a-day treatment made by pharmaceutical giant Novartis. The other, cladribine, is produced by the German drug company Merck and has longer-lasting effects. A total of 20 to 40 tablets are taken over the course of a year.

Findings from clinical studies of both drugs were published in the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday.

Both treatments appeared to be similarly effective at reducing relapse rates for patients with the most common form of "intermittent" MS, and holding back progression of the disease.

Patients taking cladribine were between 55 and 58 per cent less likely to suffer a relapse than those given a placebo pill.

Patients treated with fingolimod and compared with those given a placebo experienced a reduction in relapse rate of 54 to 60 per cent.

Both fingolimod and cladribine are said to be more effective than expensive "disease-modifying" MS drugs such as beta interferon and glatiramer acetate, which have to be injected.

The drugs are expected to be available by the end of 2011. However, it remains to be seen whether they are regarded as cost-effective enough to be prescribed on the NHS.

The MS Society said it would lobby for the drugs to be used in the UK. Its biomedical research manager, Doug Brown, said: "This is great news for people with MS and signifies a shifting tide in the treatment of the condition."