Eisai's Aricept Available In USA, Its First Market

Eisai has made its second-generation acetylcholinesterase drug Aricept(donepezil HCl) available to wholesalers and retailers in the USA, in advance of the general launch of the product which is scheduled for next month.

Aricept was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last year for the symptomatic treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease, and will be copromoted in the USA by Pfizer (Marketletter December 2). The product is available at an average wholesale price lower than that of rival drug Cognex (tacrine) from Warner-Lambert.

The lower price of Aricept (thought to be around 70% of the per day cost of Cognex at average wholesale prices), is a win-win situation for Pfizer and Eisai, according to David Saks of Gruntal & Co. Managed care and health maintenance organizations realize that a better drug can be cost-effective even if it is more expensive, but in this case Aricept seems superior on efficacy, safety and cost grounds. It does not require the liver function monitoring which held back the dosing, and sales, of Cognex, and it can be given once-daily rather than four times a day. Aricept has no serious detractions, and might fulfill the optimistic predictions that were made for Cognex before its use was limited; "it has all the ingredients of a billion-dollar product," he said.