Daiichi Sankyo/Eli Lilly's Effient and Astrazeneca's Ticagrelor May Offer Advantages in the Treatment of Post-Myocardial ...( Considerable Opportunity Remains for ...),Health

Considerable Opportunity Remains for an Antiplatelet Therapy that, Combined with Aspirin, Causes Less Bleeding than the Combination of Plavix/Iscover

and Aspirin, According to a New Report from Decision Resources

WALTHAM, Mass., May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that Daiichi Sankyo/Eli Lilly's Effient offers improvement in patient compared to Sanofi-Aventis/Bristol Myers Squibb's Plavix/Iscover in the treatment of post-myocardial infarction. Effient and AstraZeneca's ticagrelor, which is in Phase III trials, are positioned to offer advantages over Plavix/Iscover such as quick onset of action, greater potency, consistent effect, and a quick offset of action. However, clinical trials demonstrate that Effient cause more major bleeding than Plavix/Iscover and that ticagrelor must be twice-daily dosed, in comparison with Plavix/Iscover's once-daily dose. The new ADP receptor antagonists Effient and ticagrelor will be launched in 2009 and 2011, respectively. However, with Plavix/Iscover's patent expiry in 2011, only modest patient shares are expected for the new agents because of the increased competitiveness of generic clopidogrel.

The new report entitled Post-Myocardial Infarction: Emerging Therapies Must Offer Physicians More Evidence to Prove Clear Benefits further finds that an unmet need exists for an antiplatelet therapy for post-myocardial infarction that is as effective as Plavix/Iscover but that, combined with aspirin, causes less major bleeding than the combination of Plavix/Iscover and aspirin. An agent of this type would earn 43 percent patient share in post-myocardial infarction, according to primary care physicians.

"Surveyed primary care physicians consider less bleeding an important safety attribute, and the results of our survey indicate that they are not satisfied with the level of bleeding caused by the combi
'/>"/>