MIROCALS trial results published

The results of the MIROCALS trial, investigating the impact of a low dose of a drug called interleukin 2 (IL-2) in people with MND, have been published in The Lancet today (Friday).

We have shared the frustration in the MND community about how long it has taken for these results to be published so this is a welcome step forward.

You may find our blog useful in helping to understand these results and what they mean.

Overall, if including all of the results from every person in the trial, the data doesn’t provide strong evidence that the drug is an effective treatment. However, further statistical analysis indicated people with slower progressing MND, as measured by a lower level of a specific biomarker, were less likely to have died during the 21 months of the trial if they were on the drug than if they had been taking the placebo. There are still complexities within those statistics which need to be taken into account.  

We know that people with MND and their families want to know what this data means for them.  We are looking to the UK MND Clinical Studies Group (CSG), which includes leading neurologists, researchers and people with MND, to support with that. We have asked the Group, as experts, to provide us with a steer as to what they believe should be the next steps.

We understand the urgency of this, and that people with MND have already waited too long for these results. So we have asked the CSG to come to a view on this in the next few days. What we do next will be led by this expert view.  

We’re working with MND Scotland and My Name’5 Doddie Foundation collaboratively to pursue every avenue available to us to make proven treatments available to people with MND as quickly as possible and on an equitable basis.

MIROCALS was a pan-European clinical trial that investigated the impact of low dose interleukin 2 (IL-2) in people with MND. It announced encouraging preliminary results in December 2022.