Biogen
Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) announced that two new dosing innovations
designed to help patients receiving once-a-week AVONEX (interferon
beta-1a) for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) are now
available in U.S. pharmacies:
- The new AVONEX PEN (AVONEX 30mcg/0.5mL solution for injection) is the
first intramuscular (IM) autoinjector for chronic use, designed to
enhance the self-injection process for patients receiving AVONEX
therapy.
-
A new dose titration regimen, facilitated by the AVOSTARTGRIP
titration devices, provides patients with the option to gradually
increase the dose of AVONEX at treatment initiation to reduce the
incidence and severity of flu-like symptoms that patients may
experience with therapy.
These product enhancements offer the potential for a more tolerable
initiation and an easier injection process compared to the AVONEX
Prefilled Syringe.
"It is our priority to continue to improve our existing treatments like
AVONEX, which patients have relied on to effectively treat their MS
since it was approved in the U.S in 1996," said Douglas E. Williams,
Ph.D., Biogen Idec's executive vice president of Research and
Development. "AVONEX PEN has been shown to help reduce the anxiety
patients may experience when self-injecting and for patients initiating
treatment, titration can reduce the flu-like symptoms they may have when
beginning AVONEX therapy."
AVONEX PEN is the first IM autoinjector approved in MS treatment. It was
designed to enhance the self-injection process and features a
substantially smaller needle than the AVONEX Prefilled Syringe. The U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the AVONEX PEN in February
2012 based on data from a Phase 3b study in which approximately nine out
of 10 patients used the device successfully. In this study patients felt
significantly less injection pain after they switched from the Prefilled
Syringe to AVONEX PEN and the patients experienced reduced injection
anxiety with AVONEX PEN than with the Prefilled Syringe. Ninety-four
percent of patients in the study also expressed a preference for AVONEX
PEN over the AVONEX Prefilled Syringe. The top three reasons for this
preference were ease of injection, reduction in pain and reduction in
injection anxiety.