Press Release

Oral Laquinimod for Multiple Sclerosis Granted Fast Track Status by FDA Jerusalem, Israel and Lund, Sweden, February 12, 2009 - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: TEVA) and Active Biotech (NASDAQ OMX NORDIC: ACTI) today announced that oral laquinimod, an investigational treatment for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), has received a Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Teva completed enrollment for the first of its two Phase III clinical trials for laquinimod (ALLEGRO) in November 2008 and is currently enrolling RRMS patients globally for the second Phase III study (BRAVO).

to read the full report please go to
http://www.tevapharm.com/pr/2009/pr_823.asp

I wonder what the cost of a daily pill will be? Can't be the same as injectables, can it? It is so far just for those with RRMS.

Hi Cherie,

There are 3 or 4 oral drugs in development for RRMS. Merck is supposed to request approval for their drug sometime this year. The race is on because whomever is first will likely have a windfall in revenue.

I have not read anywhere yet what the projected cost of any of these drugs will be but you can bet that it will be very high. It won't depend on what the cost to the manufacturer is but what the market will pay for such a medication.

And you can also count on a "war" among these companies, each one trying to prove that their drug is better than the competition.

Some things in the world of MS medicine never change!

Take care.

Harry

Hi Harry
I think that is a different Lady than Cherie

I do just want to remind members of our copyright restrictions

Copy/pasting an entire article/press release like this is usually a possible infringement of copyright and we can get into problems when authors/publications complain

it is requested that members post only a paragraph or two from the original, with attribution/citation and then please provide the link so that others can read more

Lady, it would be appreciated if you would please check the original press release for their copyright clause and then come back and edit this to comply with it

here again are our copyright guidelines
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=37384