Real reason for Abbott's decision to stop marketing Uprima?
Last Updated: 2006-07-10 9:59:35 -0400 (Reuters Health)
LONDON (Agence de Presse Medicale for Reuters Health) - Abbott's decision to stop marketing Uprima (apomorphine) for erectile dysfunction became clearer on Monday following a study showing most patients and doctors considered the treatment did not work.
When the EMEA announced on May 29 that the company had not renewed the product's five-year marketing authorisation for "commercial reasons," observers assumed this meant Abbott did not have the marketing clout to compete against Pfizer's Viagra or Eli Lilly's Cialis.
This may still be true but another possible reason -- lack of effectiveness -- emerges from a large-scale study of 11,185 patients who were first prescribed Uprima between October 2001 - three months after the drug was launched in the UK - and December 2002.
The findings, published in the July issue of the urology journal BJU International, by researchers at the UK's Drug Safety Research Unit, show that 65% of doctors said their patient stopped taking Uprima because they felt it was not effective.
Around 70% of doctors also indicated they did not think the drug was effective.
When it launched Uprima, a dopamine receptor agonist in the form of a sub-lingual tablet in 2001, Abbott had claimed it "typically produces an erectile response in under 20 minutes".
The UK research also shows that 99 deaths (just under 1% of the total sample) were recorded - mostly heart attack (27 patients), followed by heart disease (nine) and lung cancer (five). In 21 cases the cause of death could not be established.
The data was gathered from official Green Form Questionnaires that ask British doctors to record any significant events recorded in a patient's notes after prescribing newly-marketed medicines.
The Drug Safety Research Unit is an independent charity that works in association with the University of Portsmouth. It receives unconditional grants from pharmaceutical companies who have no control over the conduct or publication of studies carried out by the unit.
BJU International 2006;98:125-131.
