Copaxone has been approved for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

In a two-year multicenter, randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial of 251 patients, copaxone (glatiramer acetate for injection) was shown to reduce relapses by an average of 29 percent when compared with placebo.

The most common side effects associated with the use of copaxone included injection site reactions, flushing, chest pain, weakness, infection, pain, nausea, joint pain, anxiety and muscle stiffness.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, often progressive disease of the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord and optic nerves), which affects 300,000 people in the United States (approximately 10,000 people are diagnosed each year). The disease most often appears in people between the ages of 20 and 40. Approximately 73 percent of people with multiple sclerosis are female.