so what ocrelizumab does is it selectively destroys part of the immune system to ease the assault on the brain. this trial was of 2000 patients. is that a significant number? can we draw some big conclusions? and has the latest trial and it is the most important one. trials go from a couple of people where you test it for safety and then bigger numbers where you say, does it work for patients? this isa say, does it work for patients? this is a really significant trial and it shows it does work in patients who have relapsing remitting ms. that is the kind that gets worse, then it gets better and then gets worse again over time. for people with the type which just gets worse there is no hope. we have the details of this trial published online. what now happens? it has to move from a trial to real life. the first stage is getting an official license to be prescribed by doctors. it will go to the us food and drug administration to get the license. it is expecting to get the license. it is expecting to get the license. it is expecting to get that by the end of next year and then it is the

three years ago, she joined a trial of a new intravenous drug called ocrelizumab. it targets an immune system cell which, in m.s., is felt to mistakenly attack the nervous system. in the more serious progressive form that gulick has, the drug slowed down the rate of disability by about 25%. neurologist dr. fred lublin of mount sinai hospital in new york city worked on the trial. >> it's a very big deal. you have to start with the success and this is the start. so this is, for us, the start of treating progressive m.s., treating progressive m.s. era. >> reporter: gulick says this drug is giving her new hope. >> maybe this is what i'm going to have for the next 20 years, and that's okay. whereasor in five years, i'm going to be bedridden. >> reporter: so you can see the silhouette of an at least acceptable future. >> yexactly. >> reporter: this drug works by suppressing the immune system and researchers are still looking at it closely for any serious side effects. and, scott, the f.d.a. is expected to make a decision about possible approval by the end of march. >> pe

it's hoped that the drug, ocrelizumab, will slow damage to the brain by killing a part of the immune system. with me is our health correspondent james gallagher. we heard from the ms society earlier and they were very excited by this, saying it is no exaggeration to call ita saying it is no exaggeration to call it a landmark development? this is the interesting thing. multiple sclerosis comes in two forms, the primary progressive wear decline is contiguous, and a relapsing form where you have a decline phase followed by recovery, followed by further recline —— decline. there are lots of drugs that have benefit in relapse and remitting ms but nothing for patients with primary progressive and the fact that ocrelizumab works in patients with primary progressive ms is therefore a really big deal. that is the big breakthrough, then? and presumably why a lot of people have been trying to get this breakthrough for some time. why has it not happened before now? i think it has been able difficult and challenging form of the disease to tackle because you have a natural cyclical nature of r

it is hoped that the ocrelizumab will offer hope for patients, after a successful trial of around 2,000 people. this is really big news for people with primary progressive forms of ms, for which there are no treatments available on the nhs. primary progressive ms means that people's disability will worsen. what this drug has shown is that it can slow the reduction of disability for those people, so this offers real hope for the future. firefighters are warning about the risk of carrying the cigarette batteries after one caught fire while the man was out shopping in leeds. you can see from cctv footage here. investigators say he was keeping batteries in his pocket and protected. it is quite grim. people should avoid storing them alongside other metal object like keys and coins. thankfully he is ok after that. the second time we have seen those extraordinary pictures this morning. the nhs will pay for ten blind patients to have so—called bionic eyes, to treat an inherited form of blindness. the bionic eye is a retinal implant which interprets images captured by a miniature video camera