A New Era for Multiple Sclerosis Disease-Modifying Therapy: EU5 Prescriber and Payer Perspectives on Current Mainstays, Recent Market Entrants, and Late-Stage Pipeline Products | Physician & Payer Forum | EU5 | 2014
By February 2014, European marketing authorizations were granted for three new disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS)—Aubagio (Sanofi/Genzyme), Lemtrada (Sanofi/Genzyme/Bayer HealthCare), and Tecfidera (Biogen Idec). Together with forthcoming market entrants, which include oral and nonoral DMTs, reformulations, and new molecular entities, novel agents have the potential to overcome shortcomings in efficacy and/or delivery among current mainstays of treatment. However, while expanding therapeutic choice, these new options will also complicate treatment decision making in MS. This report will examine the factors that influence prescribing patterns for current DMTs across the EU5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom), and explore how physicians and payers will grapple with the influx of potentially costly DMT alternatives, each offering a unique blend of benefits and risks, against a backdrop of increasingly stringent cost-containment measures and market access challenges.
