Release issued 22nd July 2008

Gleevec will achieve clinical gold standard status by 2011, according to a new report from Decision Resources

July 22, 2008-Waltham, Mass.-Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that a therapy that improves exercise capacity by a greater percentage than Actelion's Tracleer at 16 weeks, would earn a 48 percent patient share in the treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, according to surveyed pulmonologists. Although other efficacy measures are also important to prescribers, they indicate that improving exercise capacity remains an opportunity that is not only clinically relevant but one that has only been incrementally improved by recently launched therapies.

The new report entitled Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Of Five Emerging Agents, Only One Promises the Efficacy that Pulmonologists Demand also finds that Novartis's Gleevec will earn Decision Resources' proprietary clinical gold standard status for the treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension disease by 2011 as interviewed pulmonologists indicate that Gleevec has competitive advantages in measures of safety and delivery over the current clinical gold standard, GlaxoSmithKline/Gilead's Flolan. Although surveyed pulmonologists indicated that Gleevec's efficacy will be similar to, not greater than that of Flolan, Gleevec's safety measures and delivery profile will be more favorable than that of Flolan.

"Interviewed pulmonologists are hopeful that Gleevec can at least emulate Flolan's ability to prolong survival and improve patients' functional capacity," said Nikhil Mehta, analyst at Decision Resources. "Although no clinical trial data for Gleevec in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension is available yet, the drug has markedly improved six-minute walking distance and functional class status in case reports of severe Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension when other therapeutic regimens have failed."

About the Report
Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Of Five Emerging Agents, Only One Promises the Efficacy that Pulmonologists Demand is a DecisionBase 2008 report from Decision Resources. DecisionBase 2008 combines market forecasts with clinical and commercial end points to assess market share projections in 35 indications. These outputs are driven by quantitative and qualitative primary research. DecisionBase 2008 provides detailed market share, patient share, and price-per-day projections for emerging drugs in development. The market share projections are based on prescriber surveys that compare physicians' expectations of a potential target product profile with an emerging product profile of the leading drugs in development.

The report can be purchased by contacting Decision Resources. Members of the media may request an interview with an analyst.

About Decision Resources
Decision Resources (www.decisionresources.com) is a world leader in market research publications, advisory services and consulting designed to help clients shape strategy, allocate resources and master their chosen markets. Decision Resources is a Decision Resources, Inc. company

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