15 February 2018 - Ocrevus is a new treatment for a rare and worsening form of MS that impacts 10-15% of Canadians living with the disease.

Roche Canada today announced that Health Canada has approved Ocrevus (ocrelizumab), with conditions, as a monotherapy for the management of adult patients with early primary progressive multiple sclerosis as defined by disease duration and level of disability, in conjunction with imaging features characteristic of inflammatory activity. Disability is commonly determined by using the Expanded Disability Status Scale to quantify physical deterioration in multiple sclerosis and to monitor changes in the level of impairment over time. Scoring is based on the examination of a patient by a neurologist.

Health Canada has approved Ocrevus under provisions made within its Notice of Compliance with Conditions (NOC/c) policy. This policy facilitates earlier access to promising new medicines that treat, prevent or diagnose serious, life-threatening and/or severely debilitating diseases for which there is no alternative medicine available in Canada, or where the new medicine offers an overall benefit/risk profile which shows improvement over existing therapies.

Read Roche press release