At Six Months Post-Launch, Nearly Two Thirds of Surveyed U.S. Medical Oncologists Have Prescribed Xofigo to Their Prostate Cancer Patients

BURLINGTON, Mass., Feb. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources Group finds that at six month post-launch in the United States, approximately two-thirds of surveyed U.S. medical oncologists have prescribed Algeta/Bayer HealthCare's alpha-emitting radiopharmaceutical Xofigo. The majority of current non-prescribers indicated that they expect to prescribe Xofigo to their metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients within the next year. Notably, a significantly higher percentage of medical oncologists surveyed at six months post-launch express a high willingness to prescribe Xofigo compared with at one month post-launch.

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Other key findings from the second wave of the LaunchTrends^® Xofigo report:

• One of the main perceived advantages of Xofigo for the treatment of mCRPC over Johnson & Johnson/Janssen Biotech/Janssen-Cilag's Zytiga and Medivation/Astellas Pharma's Xtandi lie in its bone-targeted mechanism of action.
• Xofigo's efficacy benefit and its safety profile are also cited among the agent's top perceived advantages, according to surveyed medical oncologists.
• Half of surveyed medical oncologists who have prescribed Xofigo for docetaxel-naive symptomatic mCRPC indicated high satisfaction with the agent; one-quarter of prescribers indicated that it is too soon to draw conclusions.
• Xofigo is perceived by surveyed medical oncologists to outperform other agents on the attributes of pain palliation, delaying time to symptomatic skeletal event, reducing the need for bisphosphonates, supportive and palliative care.
• Among treatment-associated side effects, bone marrow failure, the incidence of hematologic toxicity and the uncertainty over long-term safety are most commonly perceived to be of greater concern with Xofigo compared with other agents used to treat symptomatic mCRPC.

Comments from Decision Resources Group Senior Director Rachel Webster, D.Phil., M.Sc.:

• "The need for Xofigo to be administered in a nuclear medicine facility is regarded as the top disadvantage over to Zytiga and Xtandi for the treatment of docetaxel-naive and docetaxel-pretreated mCRPC."
• "However, when considering the potential prescribing constraints, surveyed medical oncologists weight more highly the lack of familiarity with Xofigo and its cost over the need to administer this agent in a specialist nuclear medicine facility."

Additional Resources:

• Members of the media are welcome to attend our upcoming webinar based on this report entitled Tracking the Trial, Adoption and Usage of Xofigo. This presentation will be held on Tuesday, February 18, 2014. For more information, please contact Christopher Comfort at [email protected].

About Decision Resources Group
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For more information, contact:

Decision Resources Group
Christopher Comfort
781-993-2597
[email protected]

SOURCE Decision Resources Group