Teva Pharmaceuticals and MedinCell are seeking to enter the long-acting injectable (LAI) schizophrenia market after their LAI mdc-IRM (risperidone ER) demonstrated a statistically significant increase in time to relapse, compared to placebo in a Phase III trial (RISE Study). However, mdc-IRM will face an increasingly competitive schizophrenia market with LAIs being developed for many of the other antipsychotic drugs used in schizophrenia treatment, says GlobalData, leading data and analytics company.

Non-compliance is an important factor that can increase the risk of relapse in schizophrenia patients. In order to try to boost compliance, an increasingly used strategy in the schizophrenia market is LAI drugs, which have a favorable dosing strategy compared to oral therapies.

Philippa Salter, Neurology Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Risperidone is one of the most widely-used antipsychotics for schizophrenia treatment, so if approved mdc-IRM is likely to see good uptake as physicians are highly familiar with risperidone, and it has a small competitive edge of being the first risperidone formulation with a once every two months dosing regimen.

“However, it will have to directly compete with Indivior’s Perseris (risperidone ER) – an LAI with once-monthly dosing that launched in 2019 in the US, and will have first-to-market advantage. GlobalData forecasts Perseris’ global sales to reach $173m in 2026.”

LAIs are also being developed for many of the other antipsychotic drugs used in schizophrenia treatment. Of note, Janssen’s PP6M (paliperidone palmitate 6-monthly) is awaiting a decision from the EMA, and if approved would be the first LAI schizophrenia treatment with a twice-yearly dosing regimen, giving it a big advantage over the LAIs with shorter dosing regimens, including mdc-IRM.