Fibromyalgia drug to earn 38% patient share in the U.S. and 30% patient share in Europe

Jan 27 2010

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that a fibromyalgia drug that improves sleep quality more than Pfizer's Lyrica would earn a 38 percent patient share in the U.S. and a 30 percent patient share in Europe due to its efficacy, safety and tolerability, and delivery. However, U.S. and European physicians expect to use such a drug primarily as a second- or later-line therapy and will continue to prescribe Lyrica, Eli Lilly/Boehringer Ingelheim's Cymbalta/Xeristar/Ariclaim or amitriptyline as first-line treatment options.

The new report entitled Fibromyalgia: Polypharmacy Strategies Will Remain the Norm, Leaving Significant Opportunity for Therapies Effectively Targeting One or More Symptom Domains also finds that Lyrica will remain Decision Resources' proprietary clinical gold standard through 2018. While some fibromyalgia drugs in development hold promise, most have efficacy, safety and tolerability, and/or delivery issues. Only one emerging therapy--Jazz Pharmaceuticals/UCB's sodium oxybate (JZP-6)--is expected to obtain labeling for fibromyalgia during the study period but its disadvantages in safety and tolerability and to a lesser extent, delivery, preclude it from achieving Decision Resources' clinical gold-standard status in this market in the future.

"Decision Resources' proprietary drug comparator model reveals that current U.S. fibromyalgia-approved drugs such as, Lyrica, Cymbalta and Forest Laboratories/Cypress Bioscience's Savella perform similarly across measures of efficacy, safety and tolerability, and delivery. However, Lyrica's status as the first drug approved for fibromyalgia has ensured its position as the patient share leader," stated Decision Resources' Analyst Andrea Buurma.