The Company is currently developing clinical-stage products with applications in MS and SCI, each of which comprises a substantial area of unmet medical need. Core technologies developed by Acorda for SCI and MS also have potentially broad applicability for other neurological conditions.

• Focusing on both MS and SCI provides insight into chronic and acute CNS conditions. MS represents a chronic degeneration of the CNS, whereas SCI represents an acute CNS injury followed by a relatively stable chronic condition.
  

• Many of the mechanisms of secondary tissue damage and potential repair in MS and SCI are shared with other conditions, including stroke and traumatic brain injury.
  

• The functional deficits and symptoms suffered by MS and SCI patients, such as walking impairments, spasticity and loss of bladder and bowel function, are shared by other CNS disorders.
  

• A treatment that protects the spinal cord from the consequences of injury, regenerates neural connections, remyelinates or optimizes function of surviving structures in the spinal cord is likely to also be applicable to many conditions affecting the brain and the rest of the nervous system.