Solvay Pharmaceuticals And Wyeth Announce Submission Of New Drug Application For Bifeprunox To Treat Schizophrenia

Main Category: Schizophrenia
Article Date: 13 Oct 2006 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth (NYSE: WYE), announced today that a New Drug Application (NDA) was submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for bifeprunox, an investigational atypical antipsychotic for the treatment of schizophrenia.

"The NDA submission of bifeprunox is an important milestone in our commitment to develop and commercialize compounds that potentially address the long-term treatment outcomes of patients with mental illnesses," says Laurence Downey, M.D., President and CEO of Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. "In addition to our research in schizophrenia, we're also exploring other treatments for other psychiatric disorders."

The NDA submission is based on safety and efficacy studies that evaluated bifeprunox for the treatment of schizophrenia in approximately 2,550 patients. Patients were evaluated with acute exacerbations for six weeks, and stable patients were evaluated for six months.

"One recent U.S. government-sponsored study, CATIE (Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness), showed a significant need for new treatment options, especially over the long-term," says Joseph Camardo, M.D., Senior Vice President of Global Medical Affairs, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. "We are pleased that our collaboration with Solvay Pharmaceuticals has resulted in an application with proposed indications for both initial therapy and maintenance, which is an important feature for an atypical antipsychotic."

In March 2004, Solvay Pharmaceuticals and Wyeth entered into a collaboration agreement exclusively dedicated to neuroscience research and development. Under the terms of the agreement, the partners will codevelop and cocommercialize bifeprunox and two other compounds, currently known as SLV-313 and SLV-314, which are in earlier stages of development as treatments for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder with psychotic features and other indications.

About Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a chronic form of psychosis that affects approximately three million North Americans. It is characterized by positive and negative symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, poverty of speech, disorganized thought and emotional blunting. Severity of the symptoms and the long-term pattern of schizophrenia often cause a high degree of disability for patients and place a burden on families, caregivers and communities. Medications for schizophrenia can help reduce and control the distressing symptoms of the illness.

About Wyeth Pharmaceuticals

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth, has leading products in the areas of women's health care, cardiovascular disease, central nervous system, inflammation, transplantation, hemophilia, oncology, vaccines and nutritional products. Wyeth is one of the world's largest research-driven pharmaceutical and health care products companies. It is a leader in the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, biotechnology products and non-prescription medicines that improve the quality of life for people worldwide. The Company's major divisions include Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare and Fort Dodge Animal Health.

The statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements based on current expectations of future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include risks associated with the inherent uncertainty of the timing and success of product research, development and commercialization (including with respect to our pipeline products), drug pricing and payment for our products by government and third party-payors, manufacturing, data generated on the safety and efficacy of our products, economic conditions including interest and currency exchange rate fluctuations, changes in generally accepted accounting principles, the impact of competitive or generic products, trade buying patterns, global business operations, product liability and other types of litigation, the impact of legislation and regulatory compliance, intellectual property rights, strategic relationships with third parties, environmental liabilities, and other risks and uncertainties, including those detailed from time to time in our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our current reports on Form 8-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and annual report on Form 10-K, particularly the discussion under the caption "Item 1A, Risk Factors." We assume no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

Wyeth
http://www.wyeth.com

• Additional
• References
• Citations