The new AVONEX PEN (AVONEX 30mcg/0.5mL solution for injection) is the first intramuscular (IM) autoinjector

Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) announced that two new dosing innovations designed to help patients receiving once-a-week AVONEX (interferon beta-1a) for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) are now available in U.S. pharmacies:

These product enhancements offer the potential for a more tolerable initiation and an easier injection process compared to the AVONEX Prefilled Syringe.

“It is our priority to continue to improve our existing treatments like AVONEX, which patients have relied on to effectively treat their MS since it was approved in the U.S in 1996,” said Douglas E. Williams, Ph.D., Biogen Idec’s executive vice president of Research and Development. “AVONEX PEN has been shown to help reduce the anxiety patients may experience when self-injecting and for patients initiating treatment, titration can reduce the flu-like symptoms they may have when beginning AVONEX therapy.”

AVONEX PEN is the first IM autoinjector approved in MS treatment. It was designed to enhance the self-injection process and features a substantially smaller needle than the AVONEX Prefilled Syringe. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the AVONEX PEN in February 2012 based on data from a Phase 3b study in which approximately nine out of 10 patients used the device successfully. In this study patients felt significantly less injection pain after they switched from the Prefilled Syringe to AVONEX PEN and the patients experienced reduced injection anxiety with AVONEX PEN than with the Prefilled Syringe. Ninety-four percent of patients in the study also expressed a preference for AVONEX PEN over the AVONEX Prefilled Syringe. The top three reasons for this preference were ease of injection, reduction in pain and reduction in injection anxiety.

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