The year 2023 is slowly coming to an end. Therefore, as usual at this point, I would like to wish my readers a blessed Christmas season, as well as luck and health for the coming year. It was my pleasure to compile and comment on the current developments around Multiple Sclerosis for you. Thank you for your constructive and critical comments – and also thank you for some praising words, which always make me happy.
The year 2023 was not an exceptional year in terms of developments in MS therapies, but it ended with a bang. The press release of December 5, 2023, stating that the BTK inhibitor Evobrutinib from Merck did not meet the primary endpoint in phase III studies compared to Teriflunomide, can be considered a setback at the end of the year – not only for the company, but for the entire MS community, because great hopes were placed in this class of substances.
Of course, before a final evaluation, one must now wait for the exact study data. Of particular interest is how the study population was composed, as the relapse rates reported from both treatment groups are very low. And the evaluation of secondary endpoints is also of high interest. Therefore, at this point, I don’t want to doubt too much, but rather be hopeful. Perhaps, upon closer inspection, one might recognize the added value of the class of substances that we had actually expected on the expert side. In any case, the topic of BTKi will keep us on our toes in 2024 as well.
What currently keeps me on edge is the extremely tense situation in German hospitals. I have not experienced such a precarious situation in all the years of my clinical work and it is expected to get even worse in 2024, if politics does not intervene. There is no question, Germany needs a reform of its medical care system and the planned hospital reform is a step in the right direction. But the way there, by letting hospitals bleed financially without regard for their regional tasks, is unfair and unethical. It is also hard to bear because our system has proven to be quite capable during the pandemic – and hardly has the applause died down when we are faced with a situation that exhausts an already exhausted system even more – this is a less pleasant development in the past year.
Nevertheless, I am looking forward to continuing Docblog in 2024 – hopefully with exciting and eventful topics, with intensive discourse and personal encounters either in the outpatient clinic or at events, which fortunately are again unrestrictedly possible. And with that I wish you and your families a happy year 2024.