Introduction

In October 2010, Gilenya (fingolimod; Novartis) became the first oral disease-modifying therapy approved for multiple sclerosis (MS) in the US. While new market entrants drive variation in treatment options, the established market players Avonex (interferon beta-1a; Biogen) and Betaseron (interferon beta-1b; Bayer Schering) provide strong competition to current and future therapies.

Features and benefits

• Quantify the diagnosed and drug-treated multiple sclerosis patient populations, by subtype across the seven major markets.
• Analyze physician prescribing habits by subtype, line of therapy, and gauge regional dynamics of disease-modifying and symptomatic therapy choice.
• Gain insight into compliance rates in MS and identify opportunities to reduce the discontinuation rates in MS.

Highlights

Avonex and Betaseron are the most commonly prescribed disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) in MS across the seven major markets, benefitting from a broad product label and established market presence. Drug developers should be seeking to demonstrate improvements on these therapies in order to compete effectively in the MS market.

Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) is the most prevalent subtype of MS. It is the most common pharmacologically treated subtype across the seven major markets; this is unsurprising as it has the greatest number of agents approved for its management. As such, fierce competition hinders market penetration for future agents targeting RRMS.

While monotherapy with DMTs remains the mainstay of MS treatment, symptomatic therapies are used in one third of patients with MS. As such, non-compliance is a costly issue in MS. With perceived lack of efficacy being the most common cause of treatment discontinuation, Datamonitor identifies opportunities for companies to improve compliance rates.

Your key questions answered

• Which disease-modifying therapies are the most commonly prescribed in each of the seven major markets?
• What are the current multiple sclerosis market dynamics and the competitive landscape in terms of patient numbers?
• To what extent are symptomatic therapies penetrating the market and what can be done to increase this?
• What are the leading causes and impacts of non-compliance in MS and what can be done to minimize it?