I know, I know…I wrote, earlier this week, that we'd start using the day after a HealthTalk MS webcast to further discuss the previous evening's topic. But after our show, I have to leave the studio and head to the airport to catch a redeye to Florida. By the time my flight lands and I drive to my parents' place on the Gulf Coast, I'm pretty sure that writing a blog isn't going to be in the cards.

I'm writing this on Thursday morning, unspeakably early, as my day is full and my night will be spent so comfortably snuggled in seat 11D.

We've talked here and there about oral drug therapies for multiple sclerosis. We're all hoping for a safe and effective pill we can pop rather than continue our human pin cushion impressions. We all know that there are trials underway; I thought it might be a good time for an update.

Currently, there are six oral MS therapy trials underway, or in the enrollment phase, studying a total of 6,482 subjects. Some of these drugs are brand new, some are being recycled from other diseases and one is more of a supplemental oral treatment (Estriol, a sex hormone being given along with Copaxone).

Results from earlier, smaller studies show efficacy rates which range from the low 30s to high 70s. Can you imagine, popping a daily pill that left 77 percent of subjects in a Phase II study relapse-free for two years?

It's almost like a dream!

Of course, it's not a done deal. Most of these studies are relatively new and need a couple of years to study the drugs' effects on their subjects. Then a period of detailed analysis of drug side-effects and comparisons to control groups will be completed. All tolled, it will likely be three to five years before anyone outside of a research subject is popping MS pills.

Still, it's a start.

To say that this is a race is not putting too fine a point on it. With some two million people in the world living with MS and about one million of them using current injected or infused medications (and getting pretty sick of it, thank you very much), the first “MS pill” manufacturer is going swimming in some serious cash.

A moment of salute must be given to those 6,482 people who are testing the waters for us. At least one-quarter of them will be on no drug therapy at all for the next couple of years. The others will be taking drugs to see not only if they work, but if they'll make us sick in some other way (or even worse). These brave, some would even say desperate, people are taking one for the team. We thank them!

Here's a question for us all to chew on for the weekend: How effective will an oral drug have to be before you would change? The stage II trials for most of these drugs put them in the range of 30-odd percent efficacy; equal with current injectable therapies. Tysabri (natalizumab) has shown rates nearly double that (though there is some scientific conjecture on the apples-to-oranges aspects of this claim).

We also know that some drugs work for some people and don't for others. Many of us have tried one, two or even more of the current disease modifying drugs to find one that works for us (and some have not found a treatment efficacious and tolerable at the same time).

So, oral drugs are on the way. What factors will you consider once they hit the market? Will you be first in line, or will you mill about the edges to see how things pan out?

I'll be writing, next week, from the sun and sand and, well, pretty much the antithesis of Seattle in December. Oh, by the way, I was informed via e-mail that there are now only four shipping days until Christmas. If you're like me, that means some overnight service is going to be making a boat-load of money from my indecisions procrastinations.

Wishing you and your family the best of health.