Disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) for multiple sclerosis (MS) have been evaluated in pediatric patients in observational studies demonstrating a similar, even better clinical effect compared to adults, with a similar safety. Only fingolimod has been tested in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and is approved for pediatric multiple sclerosis (ped-MS). Numerous methodological, practical, and ethical issues underline that RCTs are difficult to conduct in ped-MS. This also creates a lack of safety information. To facilitate the availability of new agents in ped-MS, we encourage to develop a different approach based on pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic studies to yield information on optimal doses and implementation of obligatory registries to obtain information on safety as primary endpoint.
Keywords: Pediatric multiple sclerosis; clinical trials; disease-modifying drugs; observational studies; randomized controlled trials.