Surveyed Neurologists are Eager to Prescribe Gilenya, the First Oral Disease-Modifying Agent for MS, But Say They are Held Back by Initial Prescribing Obstacles and Potential Safety/Tolerability Concerns

EXTON, Pa., Dec. 6, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- BioTrends Research Group, Inc. finds that surveyed neurologists indicate that their initial trial of Novartis's Gilenya has been hampered by potential safety / tolerability concerns and monitoring requirements. The majority of surveyed neurologists indicate they are aware of Gilenya and -- even with already high levels of familiarity -- they remain interested in learning more about the product. As the first oral disease-modifying agent (DMA) to be approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS), surveyed neurologists identify Gilenya's unique mode of administration and positive efficacy data as its greatest advantages.

The recently released first wave of the LaunchTrends®: Gilenya report series finds that although sales of all DMAs -- Biogen Idec's Avonex and Tysabri, Bayer's Betaseron, Teva's Copaxone and Pfizer's Rebif -- are expected to be impacted by Gilenya to some degree, Gilenya use one month post-launch shows a trend toward specific DMAs taking the brunt of Gilenya's impact. Although Gilenya's current share is relatively low, the projected share trends are favorable as current prescribers anticipate increased use, while the majority of current non-prescribers expect to begin trial of Gilenya within the next six months.

LaunchTrends®: Gilenya is a three wave syndicated report series designed to track the uptake of Novartis's Gilenya at one month, three months and six months following its commercial availability. In the current wave of research, which measures Gilenya's market impact at one month post launch, BioTrends surveyed 77 neurologists and conducted qualitative interviews with a subset of 20 of the respondents in November 2010. BioTrends will continue to track the uptake of Gilenya in the next two waves of the report series, which will be published in February and May of next year.  

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LaunchTrends assesses trial and use of new products, obstacles to use, reasons to use, typical patient types, line of therapy, product perceptions, promotional efforts/messages and product satisfaction.

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SOURCE BioTrends Research Group, Inc.