Roche announced this week that two important Phase III studies of its oral drug fenebrutinib for treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) met their primary endpoints.

Fenebrutinib is a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, a class of drugs currently only approved to treat different forms of the blood cancers leukemia and lymphoma but also being developed by several companies such as Novartis, Sanofi, and Roche to treat MS.

BTK inhibitors can cross the blood–brain barrier and block an enzyme which is crucial for signaling in both B cells and myeloid cells like microglia. The targeted nature of action of these drugs means they can be used in a specific way to reduce inflammation and autoimmunity only where it is needed and not across the whole immune system.

Another potential advantage

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