HLS Therapeutics Inc. announced that results from a Quebec-based retrospective study examining the positive impact of pharmaceutical support programs ("PSPs") on persistence with clozapine treatment have been published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The publication, titled "The Impact of Pharmaceutical Support Programs on Persistence: Clinical, Human and Economic Impact of Clozapine Support Programs in Quebec, Canada", is based on an 18-month persistence study conducted using data from the Regie de l' Assurance Maladie du Quebec ("RAMQ") for patients who were initiated on clozapine treatment. Clozapine PSPs were created to provide additional services to help health care providers manage patients being treated with clozapine which is the only approved treatment for Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia ("TRS") in Canada.

Approximately 25-30% of people with Schizophrenia have TRS. HLS's branded version of clozapine is CLOZARIL®? and its associated PSP is the CLOZARIL Support and Assistance Network, or CSAN®?.

The study highlights that helping patients maintain persistence with Clozapine treatment is a critical success factor for the management of TRS patients, resulting in reduced pain and suffering of the patient, improved treatment benefits, and reduced health care costs. The study found that persistence rates were better when clozapine was paired with a PSP, including a 69% reported persistence rate overall for CSAN, as opposed to a 25% persistence rate without a program. The study also notes that differences in the offerings between PSPs can have an impact on persistence, placing varying demands on the health care system.