PRESS RELEASE

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0100

News from the annual European Charcot Foundation Symposium, 2007:

Accelerating scientific knowledge and revolutionary medical techniques
feed positive outlook on the longer term --
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: START TREATMENT EARLY

Fiuggi, Italy, December 1, 2007 - Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
should start at the first onset of the disease. All patients, regardless
of the type of MS, should receive adequate drug treatment after a first
attack. This was one of today's main conclusions at the international
medical scientific conference on New Targets of Treatment in Multiple
Sclerosis, organized by the independent European Charcot Foundation,
November 29 - December 1, 2007, Italy. More than 320 scientists and
clinicians in the field of MS from across Europe and abroad discussed
the newest developments in treatment strategies.

Most current drug treatments are aimed at the suppression of relapses
of Multiple Sclerosis. "In applying the available treatments, the
neurologist has to know on which part of the immune system the therapy
is aimed: the peripheral part of the immune system, the blood-brain
barrier and/or the brain itself", professor O.R. Hommes, chairman of
the European Charcot Foundation stated.

Unfortunately, there is no treatment to stop the progression of the
disease yet. During the congress, top level scientists in the field of
MS thoroughly discussed a number of targets for new MS treatments and
reliable measurement of clinically relevant effects. Today, medical
science is increasingly supported by accelerating technical
possibilities to analyze vast amounts of immunological samples in short
time against low costs. The growing knowledge about a set of new
biomarkers and the rapidly improving MRI imaging techniques were also
mentioned as important developments to boost the search for accurate
treatment.

It is apparent that a promising line of new oral treatments is
currently being developed, some of which are already being examined in
phase III clinical trials. "These drugs are all potentially 1st line
treatments for MS and favor a high degree of tolerability for MS
patients", as was stated by Prof. G. Comi (San Raffaele, Milan, Italy). Nowadays
only injectable therapies are available.

The enormous scientific efforts that are being undertaken throughout
the world and the tremendous build-up of knowledge about the disease in
recent years, give rise to an optimistic outlook at finding several
curative treatments of MS in the next decade. "Precise, predictive and
personalized MS drugs against acceptable cost can be anticipated by
2020", according to Prof. L. Steinman (Stanford University, USA) in
his key note lecture.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory and degenerative disease of
the central nervous system leading in time to severe disability. This
chronic disease is affecting 70 to 200 per 100.000 persons in Europe.

Notes to the editors:
For more information call Marc Hinfelaar, press officer on behalf of

the European Charcot Foundation, Molenhoek (region Nijmegen), the Netherlands.
Contact: + 31 6 55 74 65 23 (as of Monday: + 31 35 54 31 535), m.hinfelaar@hprc.nl

Summaries and comprehensive reports of the congress presentations and
discussions will be made available to the media soon.

ANNOUNCEMENT 2008 ECF SYMPOSIUM

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

The 2008 European Charcot Foundation Symposium will be organized on November 13, 14 and 15 preceded by the University Classes in MS V (November 12, 2008) in the San Domenico Palace Hotel in Taormina, Sicily, Italy.

CALL FOR BIOGEN IDEC TRAVEL GRANTS

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0200

The European Charcot Foundation is pleased to announce that Biogen Idec has provided an unrestricted educational grant to sponsor 20 Young Investigators with a travel grant of � 1000,- to attend the University Classes in Multiple Sclerosis IV.

Conditions for application can be downloaded here.

EUROPEAN CHARCOT FOUNDATION SYMPOSIUM 2008

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0200

The 2008 European Charcot Foundation Symposium will be organized on November 13, 14 and 15 preceded by the University Classes in MS V (November 12, 2008).

ECF SATELLITE SYMPOSIUM DURING ECTRIMS 2007

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0200

The European Charcot Foundation organizes a Satellite Symposium at the opening of the annual ECTRIMS Congress in Prague on October 11, 2007, 12.30 � 14.00 hrs. on �How reliable is the early diagnosis in Multiple Sclerosis?�. The Satellite Symposium will examine the long-term clinical studies in which MRI was not used as a diagnostic parameter (Dr. Brex and Dr. Kupersmith). Dr. Tintor� will discuss recent MRI data and Prof. Sterne will review a recent meta-analysis on the subject. A full programme can be downloaded here.

Nieuws European Charchot Foundations

PRESS RELEASE

ANNOUNCEMENT 2008 ECF SYMPOSIUM

CALL FOR BIOGEN IDEC TRAVEL GRANTS

EUROPEAN CHARCOT FOUNDATION SYMPOSIUM 2008

ECF SATELLITE SYMPOSIUM DURING ECTRIMS 2007