INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON CLINICAL TRIALS IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
The International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in Multiple Sclerosis is jointly supported by the US National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) and the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS).
The Committee works to provide perspective and guidance in areas of interest to planning and implementation of clinical trials for new agents for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. The Committee works as a whole, in international meetings and consensus-building activities, or through subcommittees and task forces on specific topics.
Historically, some of the Committee’s projects and publications of their outcomes have included:
- Outcomes assessment in MS clinical trials - The “Charleston Meeting” (1995)
- Defining the clinical course of MS (1996)
- Guidelines for MRI in monitoring MS treatment (1996)
- MRI for understanding and managing MS (1998)
- Development of the Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite (1999)
- Diagnostic criteria for MS (2001 and 2005 and 2010) and differential diagnosis of MS (2008)
- The ethics of placebo-controlled clinical trials in MS (2001 and 2008)
- The impact of available therapies on clinical trial design (2005)
- MRI as a surrogate outcome for MS clinical trials (2008)
- Imaging outcomes for neuroprotection and repair in MS (2009)
- Disability outcomes in MS (2012)
Ongoing projects (2013-2014) include a reevaluation of MS phenotype descriptions, an international conference on vision and visual outcomes in MS clinical trials and a full exploration of MS comorbidities and their impact on clinical studies.
