New Rebif formulation approved in Europe

pharmafile | August 30, 2007 | News story | Sales and Marketing |   

A new version of multiple sclerosis treatment Rebif, which promises to produce fewer reactions when patients inject it, is to be launched across Europe shortly.

The drug's manufacturer, Merck Serono, has succeeded in producing a new formulation of the drug without the artificial serum which causes injection site reactions in some patients.

The formulation has just been approved in the EU, and Merck Serono will be hoping the improvement will allow the drug to maintain its market-leader status in the face of growing competition.

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Rebif is the company's best-selling product, accounting for nearly 60% of sales and generating revenues of $1.45 billion (€1.1bn) worldwide in 2006. Merck Serono says Rebif is currently the leading treatment for relapsing MS outside the US, where Biogen Idec's Avonex is the number one.

Thanks to US sales, Avonex remains the world's biggest selling MS treatment, earning $1.7 billion in 2006.

New entrants to the MS market include Biogen/Elan's Tysabri, which is gaining ground after an initial safety scare at its launch in early 2005. Novartis has a new oral treatment for MS in development called FTY720 (fingolimod), with filing expected in 2009.

Merck Serono has its own oral agent, cladribine, which is in phase III trials and currently being studied both as a monotherapy and in combination with Rebif.

 

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