Surveyed Neurologists Report Significantly Higher Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Patient Shares for Gilenya and Tysabri, Compared With One Year Ago

EXTON, Pa., Dec. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — BioTrends Research Group, one of the world’s leading research and advisory firms for specialized biopharmaceutical issues, finds that physician-reported patient shares for Novartis’s Gilenya and Biogen Idec’s Tysabri are 8 percent and 10 percent among relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RR-MS) patients treated with a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) across the EU5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom)—significantly higher than those reported by EU5 neurologists surveyed in 2012. Surveyed neurologists also report that recent changes in treatment management include a shift toward earlier and more-aggressive treatment and increased use of the anti-JCV antibody assay, changes that are consistent with the increased patient shares reported for Gilenya and Tysabri. Survey data indicate that these agents occupy distinct niches, with Gilenya a preferred second-line therapy in JCV-positive patients and Tysabri a preferred second-line therapy in JCV-negative patients.

The TreatmentTrends: Multiple Sclerosis (EU) 2013 report finds that, despite fewer than 30 percent of surveyed neurologists reporting access to Genzyme’s* Aubagio and Genzyme/Bayer HealthCare’s Lemtrada—and given the limited time these agents had been available at the time the survey was fielded—these DMTs have nevertheless captured a 1 percent physician-reported weighted MS patient share. The data also reveal that surveyed neurologists anticipate substantial changes in DMT use in the coming months as access to Aubagio and Lemtrada expands and as new products, notably Biogen Idec’s Tecfidera, become available. Neurologists indicate that Aubagio will most likely compete with first-line products (i.e., Biogen Idec’s Avonex, Bayer HealthCare’s Betaferon and Teva’s Copaxone), while Tecfidera may replace these products as well as Merck Serono’s Rebif and Gilenya. Lemtrada, conversely, will most likely compete with Tysabri or would not replace an existing DMT, suggesting anticipated use as a last-line therapy.

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