Eli Lilly's Zyprexa Will Remain the Clinical Gold Standard for the Treatment of Schizophrenia Through 2015

WALTHAM, Mass., Feb. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, Inc., one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that Eli Lilly's Zyprexa will remain the gold standard for the treatment of schizophrenia through 2015. According to a new report entitled Schizophrenia: Turning Physician Insight into Projected Patient Share, Zyprexa is superior in efficacy to all other current therapies, particularly on measures that are most important to prescribers, such as impact on global symptoms and responder rate.

In spite of scoring* less favorable than the other drugs in terms of safety and lower than risperidone in terms of delivery features, Zyprexa is the gold standard. This overall advantage for a drug with significant safety concerns highlights the importance of efficacy to prescribers.

The report also finds that the most commercially important emerging antipsychotics (Janssen's Invega, Organon BioSciences' asenapine, and Wyeth/Solvay/Lundbeck's bifeprunox) score* lower than Zyprexa, indicating that Zyprexa will remain unsurpassed during Decision Resources' forecast period.

"Invega is a metabolite of risperidone and is likely to have efficacy similar to that of risperidone, which scored* slightly lower than Zyprexa overall," said Nitasha Manchanda, Ph.D., analyst at Decision Resources. "Asenapine also lacks the differentiation to replace Zyprexa as the gold standard because it does not make as significant an impact on global symptoms, and bifeprunox is significantly inferior to Zyprexa in all primary efficacy measures and is not capable of surpassing Zyprexa."

About Schizophrenia: Turning Physician Insight into Projected Patient Share

Schizophrenia: Turning Physician Insight into Projected Patient Share covers the current and future state of the schizophrenia drug market. The report includes:

  -- More than 3,000 physician responses that define drug attributes that
     drive prescription now and in the future.
     -- Clinical end point tradeoffs that are most influential to
        physicians.
     -- Areas of unmet need with highest potential.
     -- Benchmark trial results for specific drug opportunities.
     -- Patient share potential for emerging therapies and target product
        profiles.
  -- Decision Resources proprietary analysis of commercial factors that
     accelerate or constrain a drug's market potential.
     -- Promotion: DTC spend, detailing intensity.
     -- Reimbursement: formulary tier, prior approval restriction, quantity
        limits.
     -- Labeling: black box warnings, approved patient segments,
        contraindications.
     -- Competition: order of entry, pricing, generic entry, pipeline sales
        forecast.
     -- Medical practice: decision trees, treating physician type, line of
        therapy.
  -- Comparisons of the key clinical attributes of current and emerging
     therapies in the areas of efficacy, safety, and delivery.
  -- Analysis and supporting data that identifies the clinical "Gold
     Standard" now and over the next ten years.
  -- Key insights as to which clinical end points have the greatest
     influence on physician decision-making.

The report can be purchased by contacting Decision Resources. Members of the media may request a complimentary copy or an interview with an analyst.

About Decision Resources

Decision Resources, Inc., (http://www.decisionresources.com/) is a world leader in market research publications, advisory services, and consulting designed to help clients shape strategy, allocate resources, and master their chosen markets.

*For more information on the methodology behind product scores, please contact Decision Resources.

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