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www.fdanews.com/articles/86592-serono-begins-recruitment-for-clarity-trial-in-u-s

SERONO BEGINS RECRUITMENT FOR CLARITY TRIAL IN U.S.

May 5, 2006

Serono has announced that recruitment in the U.S. is beginning for the Phase III CLARITY study (CLAdRIbine Tablets in Treating MS OrallY Study) of oral cladribine for the treatment of patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). The multinational study was successfully initiated outside the U.S. in 2005, and will now expand to include 17 clinical trial sites in the U.S.

CLARITY is a two-year, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of more than 1,200 patients. It is designed to assess patients' clinical relapses, disability progression and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) brain activity. Previous clinical trials using cladribine administered by injection in patients with MS showed positive effects in reduction of new lesion development in the brain as seen on MRI scans; reductions in relapses were also observed.