There's been no word from the Saskatchewan government since the fall about the direction it will take to find treatment options for multiple sclerosis patients. That's about to change. A committee with a broad group of stakeholders will be set up in the coming weeks to explore MS research possibilities and find consensus about treatment within the MS community, Health Minister Dustin Duncan said Thursday.

"We're going to make sure that the MS Society, the MS research community, patients and family representatives will be a part of this," he said.

About 3,700 Saskatchewan people are affected by MS, a higher per capita rate than anywhere else in Canada. It was a blow to many when the province's plan to enrol 86 MS patients in a liberation therapy phase-three clinical trial in Albany, N.Y., ended in September when the principal investigator halted the study due to low enrolment.

The province set aside more than $2.2 million for the study. A month later, the government indicated it was still interested in finding another liberation therapy clinical trial for patients, but nothing more was said.

"We still are committed to being involved in research," Duncan said. "The $2.2 million that we had committed to the Albany trials, we're still committed to that dollar amount."

However, what type of research will be done is up in the air.

An extensive study coauthored by University of Saskatchewan researcher Dr. Katherine Knox in 2013 found no evidence for claims that narrowed or blocked veins - chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) - causes MS.

The study contradicted the claims of Italian physician Dr. Paolo Zamboni that all MS patients had the vein-narrowing disorder. He believed dilating blood vessels through a technique called "liberation therapy" using balloon angioplasty or stents relieved or even eliminated their symptoms. Saskatchewan residents were among thousands of MS patients worldwide who paid their way to the U.S. and other countries where the treatment was being offered.

"Whether it's CCSVI or some other type of treatment - there's a lot of work being done around stem cell research - I wouldn't say there's a lot of consensus right now about what are the next steps, so what we're proposing to do is put together a committee to look at all of the different options available," Duncan said.

He aims to announce who will be on the committee later in May, during MS Awareness Month.

"My hope would be to have recommendations this fall from them about where we would put the $2.2 million," Duncan said.

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