Alemtuzumab for multiple sclerosis: a new age of immunotherapy

Excerpt

One of the benefits of being the journal club editor is that occasionally you get to indulge yourself in an area of personal interest. The publication of the phase 3 clinical trials for campath 1-H (alemtuzumab) marks the culmination of a long journey to which I was a privileged observer almost from its inception, as I was working at Cambridge, UK, on an unrelated topic when the first patient was treated nearly 20 years ago. The time from its first use to the generation of enough interest for investment in clinical trials, through the gathering of sufficient clinical data, to finally reaching a point where alemtuzumab is on the brink of gaining a licence has been long and arduous, and the process has been heroically led by Dr Alasdair Coles and Professor Alastair Compston. The journey to this stage has been filled with the complexities of treading a careful path between academic rigour, the investigation of new avenues of research identified from use of a novel therapeutic compound, and obtaining the necessary backing from a succession of increasingly large commercial organisations as the potential of alemtuzumab became apparent. …