Pegylated interferons: a nurses' review of a novel multiple sclerosis therapy.

Most multiple sclerosis (MS) therapies are injectable drugs, and the frequency of injections has been shown to be inversely proportional to overall compliance. One method of improving therapeutic compliance and thus clinical outcomes is to develop medications that require less frequent dosing. One of the most promising modification techniques to extend the bioavailability of a drug is poly(ethylene glycol) conjugation (pegylation), which increases the size of a molecule by attaching polyethylene glycol moieties to the parent compound, resulting in slower clearance and metabolism.