Eisai/Pfizer's Aricept Owns a Dominating 42.4% Patient Share for First-Line Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that Eisai/Pfizer's Aricept owns a dominating 42.4% patient share for first-line treatment of newly diagnosed Alzheimer's disease patients. The new report entitled Treatment Algorithms in Alzheimer's Disease finds that the reasons for favoring Aricept differ between primary care physicians and neurologists. Primary care physicians prefer Aricept over other acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) largely because of their familiarity with the agent, while neurologists cite Aricept's side-effect/safety profile and easier titration (the dosing schedule needed for a patient to receive full therapeutic doses of a drug).

The report finds that, in first-line treatment, Aricept holds a 42.4% patient share. The two twice-per-day AChEIs -- Novartis's Exelon and Shire/Janssen/Ortho-McNeil's Razadyne hold only 2.8% and 1.4% shares, respectively. Aricept's first-line patient share also far exceeds that of the newer formulations of those two drugs, including the once-daily formulation of Razadyne, Razadyne ER.

"Aricept's critical attribute of once-daily administration was unique until the launch of Razadyne ER in 2005," said Madhuri Borde, Ph.D., analyst at Decision Resources. "However, our survey revealed that physicians prescribe Aricept more than any other AChEI, in large part because of their comfort level with the drug, and because primary care physicians have been slow to move to Razadyne ER."