Teva's UZEDY shows lower ER visits and cost savings in real-world data
Teva Pharmaceuticals has presented a package of real-world evidence at Psych Congress 2026 in New Orleans showing that its subcutaneous risperidone formulation, UZEDY, was associated with better treatment continuity, fewer emergency department visits and meaningfully lower direct healthcare costs when compared with alternative long-acting injectable antipsychotics in schizophrenia.
The headline finding from the schizophrenia data involves a matched cohort analysis of 1,166 patients comparing UZEDY with paliperidone palmitate once-monthly (PP1m), the market-leading long-acting injectable in the class. Patients on UZEDY had a 40% lower all-cause emergency department visit rate (22.0% vs 27.8%) and a numerically lower inpatient hospitalisation rate (11.1% vs 14.8%). Estimated mean monthly direct healthcare costs were $4,688 for UZEDY patients versus $5,725 for those on PP1m, representing an adjusted saving of just over $1,036 per patient per month.
Adherence and persistence data
A second analysis compared UZEDY against three other long-acting injectables: risperidone microspheres dosed every two weeks, aripiprazole once-monthly and haloperidol decanoate once-monthly. The sharpest contrast was against the older risperidone microsphere formulation, where UZEDY patients showed 3.6 times higher odds of adherence and an 80% lower likelihood of discontinuation. Emergency department and hospitalisation rates also favoured UZEDY versus haloperidol decanoate, while outcomes relative to aripiprazole once-monthly were broadly comparable.
Teva also presented retrospective chart data for bipolar I disorder, covering 358 matched patients who switched from oral antipsychotics to either UZEDY or another oral agent. The UZEDY group experienced significantly less treatment failure at 47% versus 63% and remained on treatment longer without experiencing mania-related hospitalisations or emergency visits.
"This observational data shows that patients receiving UZEDY had greater treatment continuity and fewer emergency department visits, reinforcing the potential of this approach to help patients stay stable while reducing pressure on an already strained healthcare system," said John M. Kane, Professor of Psychiatry and Molecular Medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.
Market and competitive context
The long-acting injectable antipsychotic market is well established but competitive. Janssen's paliperidone palmitate franchise, which includes once-monthly and once-every-three-months formulations, holds a substantial share of the segment and the comparison with PP1m will draw scrutiny: observational matched cohort studies are inherently subject to residual confounding, and the data have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Clinicians and payers will weigh these limitations against the face-validity of the economic savings.
UZEDY, which uses Medincell's copolymer subcutaneous delivery technology, is differentiated by its availability in both once-monthly and once-every-two-months dosing intervals, a feature that could aid adherence in patients who struggle with regular clinic visits. The European market for long-acting injectables is growing, driven by updated guideline recommendations favouring their use earlier in the treatment course for schizophrenia, and Teva's real-world evidence programme appears designed in part to support payer negotiations and formulary positioning rather than to generate pivotal regulatory data.
For Teva, the UZEDY data come at a strategically important moment as the company works to expand its innovative product revenue alongside its generics base. Full manuscripts from the Psych Congress abstracts have not yet been submitted for peer review, and the company did not disclose a timeline for publication.