Biogen Idec's Avonex effective long-term after early treatment

USA-based Biogen Idec presented positive data from the CHAMPIONS study, an open label follow-up to the CHAMPS trial of early treatment with the  firm's Avonex (interferon beta-1a), at the American Academy of Neurology  meeting in Seattle, Washington.

The CHAMPIONS 10-year follow up showed that patients treated immediately  after their first episode had significantly-less chance of experiencing  a second attack versus those people with delayed treatment.

The open-label, follow-up study showed: a 40% reduction in conversion to  clinically definite multiple sclerosis in patients treated immediately  upon diagnosis of clinically isolated syndrome versus those that were  delayed by a median of 30 months; 91% of subjects had an expanded  disability status scale of less than 4 after 10 years; 80% of patients  on Avonex had an EDSS of less than 3; and the annualized relapse rate  for patients with up to 10 years of care was only 0.25, suggesting a  relapse rate of only one every four years.