Novartis' Exelon patch launched in the UK

Swiss drug major Novartis' Alzheimer's disease product Exelon (rivastigmine transdermal patch) is now available in the UK for the symptomatic treatment of mild-to-moderately severe Alzheimer's disease-related dementia.

The product has been approved by the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the body that determines which drugs are provided by the National Health Service in England and Wales. Each patch delivers 9.5mg of the active ingredient over 24 hours and a pack of 30 costs L83.84 ($171.18), which amounts to L2.77 per day.

The agent's European marketing approval followed a similar decision by the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this year (Marketletter July 16), which was the product's first approval and was based on results from the international IDEAL study. The program, which involved nearly 1,200 AD patients, demonstrated that the product had a similar level of therapeutic efficacy to the highest dose Exelon capsule formulation, in terms of the blood stream concentrations of rivastigime achieved over a 24-hour period.