Online Pharmacy Medicine Blog

Today Novartis AG announced that they will pay $200 million to market Vanda’s new schizophrenia drug in the United States and Canada.

Outside of the US, Vanda will retain rights to the drug, Fanapt. Novartis does however have the option to co-commercialize or receive royalties on sales outside the US as well as the right to develop and release a long lasting injectible version of the drug.

According to Rueter’s

Fanapt, known chemically as iloperidone, was approved in May, contrary to the expectations of many industry experts and analysts. The drug was initially rejected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but Vanda resubmitted its application and the agency, to the astonishment of investors, changed its mind.

Many believe the new drug will still have a relatively small role in the large and already over-saturated antipsychotic market. In clinical trials, it was shown to be about as effective as Pfizer Inc’s Geodon…the worst-performing drug in the antipsychotic market. The major drugs that dominate the market are AstraZeneca’s Seroquel, Eli Lilly & Co’s Zyprexa, Johnson & Johnson’s Risperdal and Bristol Myers Squibb Co’s Abilify.

Although it is unlikely that Novartis’ new drug will overthrow Zyprexa which brings in $4.7 billion a year, the new drug is expected to sell about the same amount as Geodon, which had over 1$ billion in sales last year. That is a good chunk of change, but meager in comparison Zyprexa.

A growing stream of studies and news reports is questioning the effectiveness of Abilify (aripiprazole), the heavily advertised antidepressant.

As the Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry blog reports:

Yet another Abilify for depression study is out in CNS Spectrums and guess what… Still not a significant advantage over placebo according to patients. So in each of three large studies, Abilify has failed to beat a placebo according to patients’ self-report. These three trials are the basis for the massive marketing campaign and an FDA approval.

Abilify started off as an also-ran antipsychotic. But times have changed. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s CEO prophetically stated in 2004 after Abilify’s approval as a treatment for bipolar disorder: “This approval underscores our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that address unmet needs for a broad spectrum of patients with mental illness, as well as their families and health care providers.”

He could as easily have stated: “This approval underscores our commitment to rebranding our unpopular antipsychotic as a Swiss Army Knife/broad spectrum psychotropic that treats everything under the sun. If I can get the FDA and the public to believe that this akathisia-inducing bottom feeder can treat depression, then I’ll be LOADED, BWAAH, HA HA HA HA!!!”

The Los Angeles Times has written of Abilify:

Mounting research has made clear that the atypical antipsychotics [such as Abilify] are not only less safe than originally thought; they are not, on balance, any safer or more effective than older drugs for schizophrenia. And for the population of depressed or anxious patients that some are now proposed to treat, studies suggest the benefits are extremely modest.

Abilify has been specifically advertised as an “add-on” antidepressant for people who are currently taking antidepressants — but who still feel depressed. As such, hordes of patients have gone to their doctors and psychiatrists asking if they should add Abilify to their drug regimen.

As always, consult with your doctor. But it would seem a prudent course to try a number of different conventional antidepressants (Lexapro, Wellbutrin, etc.) before concluding that you need to take not one, but two, drugs for your depression.