Abilify Maintena superior to Invega Sustenna in sub analysis of QUALIFY trial for schizophrenia- Otsuka + Lundbeck

A newly released pre-specified subgroup analysis from the QUALIFY study shows that younger adult patients improve significantly on aripiprazole once-monthly (Abilify Maintena) compared with paliperidone palmitate (Invega Sustenna) as measured by the Heinrichs-Carpenter Quality of Life Scale (QLS). The positive effect of aripiprazole once-monthly is seen consistently in this subgroup of younger patients across a range of effectiveness measures, suggesting that aripiprazole once-monthly treatment at a younger age may confer better treatment outcomes than paliperidone palmitate in patients with schizophrenia. Results from this pre-defined subgroup analysis, and on additional secondary and other endpoints of the study were presented for the first time at the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP), 2015 Annual Meeting in Miami, United States (22�25 June).

The newly released subgroup analysis of data from the QUALIFY study showed significantly greater and clinically meaningful improvements in functioning and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) with aripiprazole once-monthly compared with paliperidone palmitate in patients aged 18-35 years living with schizophrenia . A difference in improvement in QLS total scores between aripiprazole once-monthly and paliperidone palmitate of 10.7 points was observed in patients aged 18-35 years (p=0.037). Changes of more than five points in the QLS total scores are considered clinically meaningful, i.e. physicians should be able to notice these changes in their patients in clinical practice. Superiority of aripiprazole once-monthly compared with paliperidone palmitate in the study's primary endpoint was also observed in the total QUALIFY study population (difference in change of 4.7 points, p=0.036). The positive effect of aripiprazole once-monthly compared with paliperidone palmitate in the subgroup of patients aged 18-35 years was consistently seen across a range of effectiveness measures (QLS, IAQ, CGI-S). This suggests that treatment with aripiprazole once-monthly may confer better treatment outcomes than with paliperidone palmitate in this patient subgroup.

See- Naber, D., et al. "Secondary effectiveness outcomes in QUALIFY, a head-to-head clinical study of aripiprazole once monthly and paliperidone palmitate in schizophrenia"-. Poster 87. Presented at American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP), 2015 Annual Meeting; 22�25 June 2015. Miami, Florida, USA.