Lilly responds to schizophrenia cost-effectiveness study

Eli Lilly has responded to the cost-effective analysis of the Clinical Antipsychotic Trial of Intervention Effectiveness (Catie) which is published today in The American Journal of Psychiatry.

The most cost-effective treatment revealed in the 18-month study was the first generation typical perohenazine in patients without pre-existing tardive dyskineisa, with Lilly’s Zyprexa (olanzapine) following. Zyprexa was found to be the most cost-effective atypical investigated in the trial.

Cherri Milner, medical director for Zyprexa at Lilly US, said: “Lilly supports studies such as Catie that add to the body of knowledge for enhancing the treatment of schizophrenia.”

She added that it should be noted that the data from the analysis was limited due to a high drop-out rate, short time-span and adjustments for patients hospitalised in the past.

Furthermore, she commented that perphenazine is prescribed infrequently in the US and the Catie analysis only involved the treatment with perphenazine for a unique group of patients.

Earlier this year, Lilly reported that sales of Zyprexa increased by five per cent to $1.085 billion (550.7 million pounds) in the third quarter of 2006. This included a six per cent increase in sales in non-US markets the company attributed to both increased demand and favourable exchange rates, despite lower prices.