By Ezequiel Minaya 

Roche Holding AG on Thursday said its experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis showed superiority to current drugs in two late-stage trials involving patients with the most common form of the disease.

The drug maker said the drug, known as ocrelizumab, also showed efficacy in a third late-stage trial with patients who have a rarer form of multiple sclerosis that has no approved treatments.

Roche said it plans to submit the results from the trials to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in early 2016, as it seeks marketing approval to treat both forms of MS. The trials were conducted by Roche's biotech business, Genentech.

Shares of Roche rose 2% to $33.19 in midday trading.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease that affects an estimated 2.3 million people around the world, according to the company. Relapsing MS is the most common form of the disease, which has no cure.

Two late-stage trials testing ocrelizumab in patients with relapsing MS showed that ocrelizumab was better than Rebif, a common therapy for relapsing MS, in reducing certain symptoms over the course of the two-year test, Genentech said in a news release.

In a separate study focusing on patients with a deteriorating form of the illness, known as primary progressive multiple sclerosis, the drug was said to reduce the progression of clinical disability over 12- and 24-week periods when compared with a placebo.

"Additionally, the study met other secondary endpoints of reducing the time required to walk 25 feet, the volume of chronic inflammatory brain lesions, and brain volume loss," the company added.

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at ezequiel.minaya@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 08, 2015 13:42 ET (17:42 GMT)