Footnotes

• Contributors MAR was invited to write the editorial commentary and drafted the manuscript. MF was involved in the discussion and in the manuscript editing.

• Competing interests MAR received speakers’ honoraria from Biogen Idec, Novartis, Genzyme, Sanofi-Aventis, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Excemed and receives research support from the Italian Ministry of Health and Fondazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla. MF is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neurology; serves on scientific advisory board for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries; has received compensation for consulting services and/or speaking activities from Biogen Idec, Excemed, Novartis, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries; and receives research support from Biogen Idec, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Novartis, Italian Ministry of Health, Fondazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla, Cure PSP, Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), the Jacques and Gloria Gossweiler Foundation (Switzerland), and ARiSLA (Fondazione Italiana di Ricerca per la SLA).

• Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.