v Compared to initial placebo treatment, early use of Betaferon delayed the onset of definite MS by 37 percent or 45 percent over a five-year period, depending which of two commonly used definitions of MS was used, a five-year study involving 468 patients showed. In the trial, one group was given the drug on the first symptoms pointing to MS, while the other group received a placebo at first and switched to Betaferon as soon as a second attack occurred or after two years at the latest. The study suggested that no time should be wasted after the first MS attack because some of the early nerve damage resisted repair by later therapy, Mark Freedman, a professor of neurology and lead investigator of the study, said in a conference call. "Probably the best treatment is prevention, and this study shows that we are able to do just that," Freedman added. Further analysis showed that patients treated earlier had less severe disabilities and impairment of cognitive functions as the disease progressed than those in the control group. MS drugs are often given only after the second attack because the debilitating disease is difficult to diagnose. The results are likely to also apply to other MS drugs, Freedman said. Other developers of MS drugs are eager to show that the earliest possible therapy of MS is warranted. Germany's Merck KGaA earlier this week said it is launching a new late-stage Phase III clinical trial of its experimental MS pill cladribine, also to explore the benefit of using the drug on the first signs of MS. Merck is racing other drugmakers, including Novartis, to develop the world's first MS drug that can be given by mouth, to take market share from the prevailing injections, such as Bayer's Betaferon, Rebif, also by Merck, and Teva's Copaxone. Bayer bought Betaferon, known as Betaseron in the United States and Canada, as part of its acquisition of competitor Schering in 2006. The Betaferon injection was Bayer's second-best selling pharmaceutical after the Yasmin/YAZ group of contraceptives, generating about 1 billion euros ($1.45 billion) in revenues. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080920/hl_nm/bayer_betaferon_dc_1