Terifluinomide is licensed in the UK for the treatment of adults with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), and is recommended by NICE as an option for treating those with active disease (normally defined as 2 clinically significant relapses in the previous 2 years), only if they do not have highly active or rapidly evolving severe disease, and provided that the manufacturer supplies it with the discount agreed in the patient access scheme.
It is not currently licensed for use in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS; a first single clinical episode consistent with demyelination). A related Comment article discusses the premature termination of the study due to updated diagnostic criteria, whereby certain patients who present with CIS would actually fulfil new criteria for a diagnosis of MS; they note however that this was probably unnecessary as it is unlikely to have affected the clinical management of these patients. They comment that the most intriguing issue is whether the higher percentage of patients who do not develop multiple sclerosis with active treatment compared with placebo represents a cure for the disease or if this is just a transitory finding.