Release issued 15th May 2008

May 15, 2008, Waltham, Mass.  Decision Resources, one of the world’s leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that Daiichi Sankyo/Eli Lilly’s Effient offers improvement in patient compared to Sanofi-Aventis/Bristol Myers Squibb’s Plavix/Iscover in the treatment of Post-Myocardial Infarction. Effient and AstraZeneca’s Ticagrelor, which is in Phase III trials, are positioned to offer advantages over Plavix/Iscover such as quick onset of action, greater potency, consistent effect, and a quick offset of action. However, clinical trials demonstrate that Effient cause more major bleeding than Plavix/Iscover and that Ticagrelor must be twice-daily dosed, in comparison with Plavix/Iscover’s once-daily dose. The new ADP receptor antagonists Effient and Ticagrelor will be launched in 2009 and 2011, respectively. However, with Plavix/Iscover’s patent expiry in 2011, only modest patient shares are expected for the new agents because of the increased competitiveness of generic Clopidogrel.

The new report entitled Post-Myocardial Infarction: Emerging Therapies Must Offer Physicians More Evidence to Prove Clear Benefits further finds that an unmet need exists for an Antiplatelet therapy for Post-Myocardial Infarction that is as effective as Plavix/Iscover but that, combined with Aspirin, causes less major bleeding than the combination of Plavix/Iscover and Aspirin. An agent of this type would earn 43 percent patient share in Post-Myocardial Infarction, according to primary care physicians.

“Surveyed primary care physicians consider less bleeding an important safety attribute, and the results of our survey indicate that they are not satisfied with the level of bleeding caused by the combination of Plavix/Iscover and Aspirin,” said Jeremy Goldman, M.D., analyst at Decision Resources. “Because Plavix/Iscover is the only adenosine diphosphate receptor antagonist used in combination with Aspirin (excluding the occasional use of ticlopidine [Roche/Sanofi -Aventis’s Ticlid, Daiichi Sankyo’s Panaldine, generics]) in the United States, there is considerable opportunity for an Antiplatelet agent that is as effective as Plavix/Iscover when it is added to Aspirin but does not bring the higher risk of major bleeding.”

About the Report
Post-Myocardial Infarction: Emerging Therapies Must Offer Physicians More Evidence to Prove Clear Benefits 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 market 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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