Teva Drug Halved Risk Of Full-blown Multiple Sclerosis In Study
The Teva drug was about as effective at keeping multiple sclerosis at bay as beta interferon therapies sold by Biogen Idec Inc., Bayer AG and Merck KGaA, according to the study, published online today by U.K. medical journal The Lancet. A quarter of patients who took Copaxone over a three-year period had a second attack of symptoms, compared to 43 percent of those who got a placebo.
Copaxone, known chemically as glatiramer acetate, “reduced the frequency of relapses in the short term and might reduce the rate of accumulation of irreversible disability in the long term,” wrote researchers led by Giancarlo Comi, a professor in the department of neurology at University Vita-Salute in Milan. The study establishes the Teva drug as an option for patients who choose to start treatment early, they said.
The company-sponsored study followed 481 patients who had already experienced one attack that could signal the onset of multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease in which the bodys immune system attacks the central nervous system. Not all patients go on to develop multiple sclerosis, researchers said. About half are likely to have a major disability 15 to 20 years after their first attack, while about a third of patients are likely to suffer little or no disability.
Some doctors may now urge treatment with Copaxone or beta interferon therapies in an effort to give patients a better long-term prognosis, neurologists David Miller and Siobhan Leary wrote in a comment accompanying the Lancet study.
Wait and See
“Others will adopt a wait-and-see approach, noting that many such patients remain well for a long time,” Miller and Leary wrote, adding that the biggest need is for treatments that can help repair disability for multiple sclerosis patients.
Copaxone is Tevas top-selling drug, with $2.3 billion in revenue last year, and accounts for as much as 35 percent of the Petah Tikva, Israel-based drugmakers earnings.
U.S. regulators accepted an application for a generic version of the injected therapy last month from U.S. generic- drug maker Mylan Inc. and its partner Natco Pharma Ltd., an Indian drugmaker. U.S. biotech Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. is also seeking approval to sell a generic version of the medicine.