Novartis Stock Rises on Positive MS Drug Trial Results

Novartis shares surged on Tuesday after the Swiss pharmaceutical company announced positive results from two late-stage clinical trials of its oral multiple sclerosis drug, remibrutinib, showing it outperformed a rival treatment and could become a major new revenue driver. The news sent the company's stock up nearly 5% in early trading. The two Phase III studies, named REMODEL1 and REMODEL2, each enrolled approximately 1,000 adult patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis. The trials compared remibrutinib against teriflunomide, an existing oral MS therapy sold by Sanofi under the brand name Aubagio. According to Novartis, both studies met their primary endpoint, demonstrating that remibrutinib was superior in reducing the annualized relapse rate. The drug also showed superiority across all key secondary endpoints, including a reduction in brain lesions visible on MRI scans, and produced clinically meaningful results in slowing disability progression. A key differentiator for remibrutinib appears to be its safety profile. Novartis reported that the drug showed no liver safety signal across more than 4,500 clinical trial participants in multiple indications.