Just two months after the FDA accepted for review Teva’s long-acting version of a decades-old schizophrenia drug, the Israeli pharma is launching a community project to help people with the disorder and their carers.
The “Home Ground Schizophrenia Community” works as an online platform and was created in tandem with people living with schizophrenia and those who care for them.
The idea is to “help people learn from others, feel less alone and address real-life needs with resources that are useful, understandable and actionable,” according to an April 15 release.
There are several tools attached to the project, including symptom tracking via printable worksheets, as well as information about local and national community events “to connect people with schizophrenia and their care partners to their community,” Teva said.
The resources are free and found online. The info has some limited Teva branding but no direct mention of its products. The site includes videos about living with schizophrenia and resources for financial, emotional and symptom management support.
“For those living with schizophrenia, it is clear that social isolation represents a fundamental and often primary impediment to achieving and maintaining successful recovery,” Heather DeMyers, Vice President of Marketing, U.S. Innovative Medicines at Teva, said in a statement.
“Home Ground Schizophrenia Community was developed to address this head-on. By offering practical community resources and easy-to-use tools, the platform aims to integrate social support into treatment plans so no one has to face these challenges alone.”
On February 20, Teva nabbed an FDA review of TEV’749, its long-acting formulation of olanzapine using its SteadyTeq technology.
This drug is one of the most widely used atypical antipsychotic schizophrenia treatments in the world, having been first approved in the 1990s and marketed by Eli Lilly under the brand name Zyprexa.
While Lilly makes a longer-acting option of the drug called Zyprexa Relprevv, it carries a black-box warning for the rare but serious risk of post-injection delirium/sedation syndrome (PDSS).
Teva, which launched a Dr. Reddy’s-partnered generic to Zyprexa in 2011, spotted a gap in the market for a safe and effective controlled-release version of the popular treatment. Long-acting medicines are especially crucial for schizophrenia treatment adherence.
Teva has also previously used its SteadyTeq technology for Uzedy, a slow-release version of Johnson & Johnson’s schizophrenia med Risperdal (risperidone).