Tysabri Will Remain Decision Resources’ Clinical Gold Standard Through 2018 for the Treatment of Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis

WALTHAM, Mass., March 1 /PRNewswire/ — Decision Resources, one of the world’s leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that, for the treatment of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, Biogen Idec/Elan’s Tysabri will remain Decision Resources’ proprietary clinical gold standard through 2018. While some drugs in development for multiple sclerosis hold promise, most have less favorable efficacy and/or delivery features compared with Tysabri. Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis is a subpopulation of chronic progressive multiple sclerosis.

The new report entitled Multiple Sclerosis (Chronic Progressive): Amid Few Approved Therapies and Limited Drug Development, Significant Opportunity Awaits New Therapies for Patients with Progressive Forms of MS also finds that a drug approved for secondary progressive multiple sclerosis that reduces long-term disability progression more effectively than Bayer HealthCare’s Betaseron would earn 25 – 38 percent patient share in the United States. These high patient shares reflect the unmet need for drugs that have the ability to delay disability progression in multiple sclerosis patients over the long term.

“Surveyed neurologists told us that a drug’s effect on long-term disability progression is the attribute that most influences their prescribing decisions in chronic progressive multiple sclerosis,” stated Decision Resources Director Bethany Kiernan, Ph.D. “Although Tysabri’s robust therapeutic effects have been demonstrated only in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients, not chronic progressive multiple sclerosis patients, interviewed experts’ positive perception of the drug’s efficacy extends beyond the relapsing-remitting population. Taken together, these clinical data and the opinions of interviewed thought leaders indicate that Tysabri has advantages over the chronic progressive multiple sclerosis sales leader, Betaseron, on this attribute.”