Objectives Disease modifying treatment for secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) represents a major unmet need. We outline here the rationale for the MS-STAT2 trial – a phase 3 study of simvastatin in decreasing clinical progression in SPMS. MS-STAT2 will be a landmark study not only for patients with SPMS, but also for the area of drug repurposing and academically led clinical trials as a whole.

Design Multicentre, double blind, parallel group randomised placebo-controlled trial. It follows the positive outcome from the phase 2 MS-STAT1 trial, which demonstrated a 43% reduction in the annualised rate of brain atrophy compared to placebo.¹

Subjects 1180 patients with SPMS with an expanded disability status scale (EDSS) score of 4.0–6.5. Patients need to show evidence of disease progression over the preceding 2 years.

Methods Subject will be recruited at 28 sites across the UK, and randomised to simvastatin 80 mg or matched placebo and assessed every 6 months over the 3 year trial.

Results The primary outcome measure is time to 6 month confirmed disability progression, based on change in Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores compared to baseline. Secondary outcomes include assessments of cognition, walking, upper limb function and vision. Sub-studies will include advanced imaging outcomes, ocular coherence tomography and fluid biomarkers.

Conclusions MS-STAT2 is set to be a pivotal trial for SPMS. Recruitment has now commenced and further sites are welcome.

Reference

1. Chataway J, et al. MS-STAT. Lancet2014;383:2213–21.