War in Ukraine Is Slowing Work on Roche Multiple Sclerosis Drug
- Roche uses investigators to track down trial participants
- Biggest roadblock is recruiting new patients for tests
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Russia’s war in Ukraine is affecting trials of Roche Holding AG’s latest experimental multiple sclerosis drug, as doctors rush to move patients who have become refugees to new treatment centers.
The biggest roadblock is in recruiting new patients, said Bill Anderson, Roche’s pharmaceutical unit chief. People from Russia and Ukraine have made up 20% to 30% of the study population in trials of new multiple sclerosis medicines, he said. That’s because of a combination of high rates of the debilitating neurological disease -- which disproportionately affects Caucasians and people in northern latitudes -- and a lack of access to the expensive treatments through regular channels.