Phase III Data With Lilly's Olanzapine

Eli Lilly reported encouraging Phase III results with its atypical antipsychotic Zyprex (olanzapine) at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology meeting in Puerto Rico last month. The drug has shown clear advantages over current therapy in terms of side effects and may become a major new treatment for schizophrenia.

The study involved 1,966 patients with acute exacerbations of schizophrenia who were treated with either olanzapine or haloperidol, a long-standing and widely-used treatment, for up to six weeks. According to the data gathered during the study, patients treated with olanzapine had statistically significant differences compared to haloperidol in a range of scales testing both the symptoms of schizophrenia and the side effects of treatment. Patients had their progress measured using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and Clinical Global Impression measures.

Patients treated with olanzapine showed an average decrease of 10.9 points on the BPRS scale, while haloperidol-treated patients had an average 7.9-point decrease, a statistically-significant result. Amongst the severely-affected patients (those with a BPRS rating of 18 or more at baseline), 51.6% of the olanzapine treated patients had an improvement of 40% or greater after three or more weeks of treatment, compared to 34.2% of the haloperidol patients.