Merck KGaA asks for MS pill approval

Merck KGaA asked European regulators to approve its pill for multiple sclerosis, the next step in the German drugmaker’s race against Novartis AG to market the first oral medicine for the debilitating nerve disease.

Merck submitted a marketing authorization application for the pill, cladribine, to the European Medicines Agency and plans an application to US regulators this quarter, the Darmstadt, Germany-based maker of drugs and chemicals said in an e-mailed statement today.

The application “brings us closer to the possibility of providing an oral short-course treatment to patients with multiple sclerosis,” Roberto Gradnik, an executive vice president in Merck’s Serono division, said in the statement.