The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is ready to accept proposals for clinical trials on the proposed condition behind multiple sclerosis known as CCSVI, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced Friday. Health Canada announced in June it had agreed with a recommendation from the CIHR that Ottawa should support a clinical trial. Criteria for the trial have now been established and the government's health research funding agency is making the call for proposals.

The government has been under heavy pressure to fund a procedure known as the Zamboni treatment, which is not sanctioned in Canada. It set up an expert advisory panel last year to weigh the evidence for and against both the theory behind CCSVI and the procedure.