Release issued 24th April 2008

April 24, 2008, Waltham, Mass. Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that a drug's effect on latency to sleep onset is the attribute that most influences surveyed primary care physicians' (PCPs) prescribing decisions in the treatment of insomnia. Clinical data and expert opinion shows that current and emerging therapies offer few advantages in this attribute over the market sales leader, Sanofi-Aventis's Ambien.

The new report entitled Insomnia: To Gain Share, Emerging Therapies Must Improve Side Effects Without Compromising Efficacy  finds that a hypnotic that is free of next-day residual effects would earn a 40 percent patient share in insomnia, according to our survey of PCPs. The report also finds that although the clinical gold standard in 2006 for insomnia was controlled-release Ambien, Somaxon's Silenor will become the clinical gold standard treatment for insomnia in 2011, following its anticipated approval for the indication in 2009.

Silenor will earn gold standard status owing to its competitive advantages in efficacy and safety over controlled-release Ambien as interviewed sleep experts anticipate that-based on currently-available data released by Somaxon-Silenor will feature improvements over Ambien in the measurement of time awake after sleep onset.

"Additional advantages in safety and tolerability over controlled-release Ambien combine to earn Silenor gold-standard status in 2011," said Natalie Taylor, Ph.D., analyst at Decision Resources. "Interviewed experts expect that Silenor will be perceived by physicians as safer than currently available hypnotics, given the use of the agent's active ingredient at higher doses as an antidepressant for more than 30 years."

About the Report
Insomnia: To Gain Share, Emerging Therapies Must Improve Side Effects Without Compromising Efficacy is a DecisionBase 2008 report from Decision Resources. DecisionBase 2008 combines market forecasts with clinical and commercial end points to assess market share projections in 35 indications. These outputs are driven by quantitative and qualitative primary research. DecisionBase 2008 provides detailed market share, patient share, and price-per-day projections for emerging drugs in development. The market share projections are based on prescriber surveys that compare physicians' expectations of a potential target product profile with an emerging product profile of the leading drugs in development.

The report can be purchased by contacting Decision Resources. Members of the media may request an interview with an analyst.

About Decision Resources
Decision Resources, Inc. (www.decisionresources.com ) is a world leader in research publications, advisory services, and consulting designed to help clients shape strategy, allocate resources, and master their chosen markets. Decision Resources is a Decision Resources, Inc. company.

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