This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Andrew N. Wilner, MD: Welcome to Medscape. I'm Dr Andrew Wilner, reporting from the 2021 American Academy of Neurology (AAN) annual meeting. With me today is Dr Sabrina Paganoni, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Neurological Clinical Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital. Welcome, Dr Paganoni.
Sabrina Paganoni, MD, PhD: Thank you for having me.
The CENTAUR Trial
Paganoni: We were honored to be featured at AAN and to present additional results from the CENTAUR trial, which looked at a new drug for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) called AMX0035. The reason we're very excited about it is because the drug in this trial provided both functional benefits and a survival advantage in people living with ALS. As you know, ALS is a fatal disease with limited options, so being able to conduct a trial with a positive result was really fantastic.
Wilner: There's an available medication for treating ALS patients called riluzole. What I remember about it was that it was very expensive and it didn't help too much. Does AMX0035 do any better? Did you do a comparative study with riluzole?
Paganoni: There's been some good progress in the field of ALS in recent years.
