Sanofi/Ad Scientiam presented an interim analysis from the ongoing MS-DETECT (NCT05816122) study, showing that Microsoft (MS) Copilot can monitor disease progression in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).
The MS-DETECT study is a multi-centre trial across the US, Canada, and Europe with 336 patients enrolled. Patients who were enrolled in or participating in another ongoing clinical trial were excluded from the study. The trial assesses whether MSCopilot Detect can identify subtle changes concerning disability progression in MS patients caused by either relapse activity worsening or progression independent of relapses.
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The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and the revised four-component Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite (MSFC-4) are clinical evaluation tools which are commonly used to quantify disability and disease progression in MS. But clinicians reported that these assessments can be time-consuming, and it is often not feasible to conduct these during routine clinical visits. As such, MSCopilot Detect could address an unmet need for sensitive and scalable clinical measures of disability progression in patients with MS.
The MS-DETECT study is one of the first pivotal trials investigating the utility of digital biomarkers.
The data was presented during an oral session on 28 June at the 12th Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) 2026.
During the oral presentation session “MS and Related Disorders 2”, interim analysis of the study showed that MS Copilot Detect scores correlated with the MSFC-4 framework when performed in clinic under supervision or independently by the patient in their home.
This included assessments of walking capacity, cognitive processing speed, upper-limb fine dexterity, and low-contrast visual acuity. Furthermore, the correlation between the MSCopilot Detect scores and MSFC-4 scores was conserved over a 12-month period. These findings position MSCopilot Detect as a promising tool for decentralised data collection in both clinical trials and real-world settings.
While MS Copilot Detect has shown promise as a tool for remote MS monitoring that can be accessed using the patients’ smartphones, the full results from the MS-DETECT study are needed to assess long-term adherence and patient attrition rates associated with use of the tool. This will be critical for evaluating real-world feasibility for monitoring disability progression.
In addition, further validation against established biomarkers for disability progression is required. For example, blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and neurofilament light chain (NfL), or imaging biomarkers assessing paramagnetic rim lesions (PRLs), slowly expanding lesions (SELs), and accelerated brain atrophy, will be essential to strengthen MS Copilot Detect’s positioning as a surrogate or complementary endpoint in clinical trials for pipeline drugs targeting disease progression. MS Copilot Detect represents a promising step towards more sensitive, remote clinical assessment of MS progression, with potential implications in clinical trials and in routine monitoring of MS.
