Posted by jrbecker on June 6, 2003, at 11:53:16
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.cfm?StoryID=12901620&full=1
ePocrates Survey Reveals Psychiatrists Expect To Increase Usage Of Abilify
SAN MATEO, Calif., June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a survey conducted by ePocrates, an overwhelming majority of psychiatrists say that their usage of the anti-psychotic Abilify will increase based on the findings of a head-to-head clinical trial that pitted relative newcomer Abilify against category powerhouse Zyprexa.
The results of the head-to-head trial were presented at the 153rd Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. The trial results showed that a significantly greater number of patients with schizophrenia who were treated with Eli Lilly's Zyprexa experienced clinically significant weight gain compared to those treated with Bristol-Myers Squibb's Abilify with both drugs demonstrating comparable efficacy.
In order to gauge physicians' reactions to this news, ePocrates conducted a web-based survey among ePocrates network members. ePocrates surveyed 92 psychiatrists between May 23rd and May 25th, 2003. Respondents were selected at random from the ePocrates Honors(TM) panel of opted-in physicians. Nineteen respondents attended the APA conference. No significant differences were observed between those attending the conference and those not attending. Key survey findings are outlined below:
-- 87% of the psychiatrists surveyed indicate that their usage of Abilify will increase based on the results of the head-to-head trial.-- Of the common adverse reactions associated with anti-psychotics, weight gain is what concerns psychiatrists most by a factor of more than 2-to-1 over the second most concerning adverse reaction, "Somnolence."
-- Not surprisingly, when asked why they plan to increase their usage of Abilify, the universal reason given is concern about Zyprexa's weight
gain profile compared to Abilify's weight neutral/weight loss profile.-- 55% of those psychiatrists that say their usage of Abilify will increase are high writers of Zyprexa, prescribing it for one-third or more of their schizophrenic patients.
-- 99% of psychiatrists reported observing weight gain in the patients for whom they prescribe Zyprexa while only 4% of psychiatrists report weight gain among patients treated with Abilify.
In the past year, physicians have looked up anti-psychotic drugs over 2.7 million times in ePocrates Rx(TM), ePocrates's popular PDA-based drug reference. Since its launch in December, Abilify has quickly become the third most referenced anti-psychotic among psychiatrists, behind only Seroquel and Zyprexa. These drug lookup data are usually, but not necessarily, a leading indicator of prescription volume. This bodes well for Abilify. High lookups denote high brand recall (since the doctor searches by drug name) and lookups usually precede a prescription.
"This information is an outstanding example of the value of the ePocrates network. We have an unparalleled relationship with physicians and allied healthcare professionals that rely on our drug reference as a trusted source of clinical information. To date, 85,000 physicians and 180,000 allied health care professionals in our network have opted-in to our online market research panel. Our ability to quickly gather ad hoc data via this panel coupled with our experience with over 250,000 physicians who use our drug reference enables ePocrates to provide those who monitor the pharmaceutical industry with powerful tools for quickly gaining valuable market insights," noted Matt Campion, vice president of Pharmaceutical Services at ePocrates, and study author.
About ePocrates
ePocrates Inc. is the largest handheld clinician network with over 750,000 registered healthcare professionals. In addition to ePocrates Rx(TM), ePocrates offers a clinical suite of products, ePocrates Rx Pro(TM), which includes an herbal database and an infectious disease application, and ePocrates Rx Online(TM), enabling people to access trusted ePocrates Rx content via the Internet. ePocrates also offers formulary hosting, messaging, market research and clinical trial recruitment capabilities via its proprietary network. While ePocrates tracks the use of its drug reference, primarily to better understand the usage patterns as an aid in improving the product, ePocrates does not share usage information concerning individual ePocrates users with drug companies (see ePocrates's privacy policy for more information). ePocrates is headquartered in San Mateo, CA. For more information on ePocrates, including its privacy policy, visit http://www.epocrates.com
SOURCE ePocrates, Inc.
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