Instructions for Use
800.456.2255

A family of
services
surrounds
your patients

Biogen Support Services provides a
comprehensive support network for your
patients with RMS

Enroll your AVONEX patients
in Biogen Support Services.

You or your patients can call
1-800-456-2255 Monday-Friday
from 8:30 AM to 8:00 PM ET. Hablamos español.

Click on the sections below to discover how Biogen Support Services can help your
patients stay on track with their treatment.

Biogen Case Managers
Biogen Case Managers

For your patients, Biogen Case Managers will:

  • Contact your patients with a welcome call, once they are prescribed, as well as with periodic follow-up calls
  • Educate patients about available financial assistance options for AVONEX

For your office, Biogen Case Managers will:

  • Provide your office with patient status updates to help you stay up to date with their treatment
Live Nurse Educator Support
Live Nurse Educator Support

Nurse Educators are registered nurses, and many are MS certified. They can:

  • Explain what to expect during treatment and provide ongoing disease and treatment education
  • Educate about available resources
  • Deliver in-home or virtual injection training
  • Send your office updates on how your patients are doing with the injection training
  • Visit your office to talk to your staff about how they can support your patients on AVONEX
  • Train your staff on how best to support MS patients
Financial & Insurance Support

Biogen Support Services will work with your patients based on their individual needs. We offer a variety of different financial and insurance resources, including:

  • Providing coverage support through reimbursement services and a Copay Assistance Program for eligible patients
  • Providing a summary of benefits for each patient by completing a benefits investigation
  • Connecting with the Biogen Copay Program, which may lower medication costs for eligible patients with commercial insurance
Ongoing Treatment Support
Ongoing Treatment Support

Nurse Educators provide ongoing support that continues after your patients leave the office and throughout their treatment journey. They:

  • Offer refresher injection training available for your AVONEX patients at any point during treatment
  • Send regular status reports to your office about patient engagement with the program and updates on their needs
Live Access Support
Live Access Support

Biogen Case Managers:

  • Communicate with insurance companies
  • Guide your office through the prior authorization process
  • Connect patients with financial support options
Get Started

Get your patients started on therapy with the AVONEX Start Form

E-Sign Start Form

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Next: Efficacy

Indication

AVONEX® (interferon beta-1a) is indicated for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), to include clinically isolated syndrome, relapsing-remitting disease, and active secondary progressive disease, in adults.

Important Safety Information

CONTRAINDICATIONS

  • AVONEX is contraindicated in patients with a history of hypersensitivity to natural or recombinant interferon beta, or any other component of the formulation
  • The formerly available lyophilized vial formulation of AVONEX is contraindicated in patients with a history of hypersensitivity to albumin (human)

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS

Depression, Suicide, and Psychotic Disorders

  • Patients treated with AVONEX and their caregivers should be advised to report immediately any symptoms of depression, suicidal ideation, and/or psychosis to their prescribing physician. If a patient develops depression or other severe psychiatric symptoms, cessation of AVONEX therapy should be considered. Depression and suicide have been reported to occur with increased frequency in patients receiving AVONEX. Additionally, there have been postmarketing reports of depression, suicidal ideation, and/or development of new or worsening of other pre-existing psychiatric disorders, including psychosis. For some of these patients, symptoms of depression improved upon cessation of AVONEX

Hepatic Injury

  • Severe hepatic injury, including cases of hepatic failure, has been reported rarely in patients taking AVONEX. Asymptomatic elevation of hepatic transaminases has also been reported, and in some patients has recurred upon rechallenge with AVONEX. In some cases, these events have occurred in the presence of other drugs that have been associated with hepatic injury. The potential risk of AVONEX used in combination with known hepatotoxic drugs or other products (e.g., alcohol) should be considered prior to starting AVONEX, or before starting hepatotoxic drugs. Patients should be monitored for signs of hepatic injury

Anaphylaxis and Other Allergic-Reactions

  • Anaphylaxis has been reported as a rare complication of AVONEX use. Other allergic reactions have included dyspnea, orolingual edema, skin rash and urticaria. Discontinue AVONEX if anaphylaxis or other allergic reactions occur

Injection Site Reactions Including Necrosis

  • Injection site reactions, including injection site necrosis, can occur with the use of interferon beta products, including AVONEX. In controlled clinical trials, injection site reactions (e.g., injection site pain, bruising or erythema) occurred in 18% of patients receiving AVONEX and 13% in the placebo group. These reactions included injection site inflammation (6%), injection site pain (8%), injection site mass (<1%), nonspecific reactions. Injection site abscesses and cellulitis and injection site necrosis have been reported in the postmarketing setting with interferon beta products, including AVONEX. Some cases required treatment with hospitalization for surgical drainage and intravenous antibiotics. Periodically evaluate patient understanding and use of aseptic self-injection techniques and procedures, particularly if injection site necrosis has occurred. Whether to discontinue therapy following a single site of necrosis is dependent on the extent of necrosis. For patients who continue therapy with AVONEX after injection site necrosis has occurred, avoid administration of AVONEX into the affected area until it is fully healed. If multiple lesions occur, change injection site or discontinue therapy until healing occurs

Congestive Heart Failure

  • Patients with pre-existing congestive heart failure should be monitored for worsening of their cardiac condition during initiation of and continued treatment with AVONEX. While beta interferons do not have any known direct cardiac toxicity, during the postmarketing period cases of congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, and cardiomyopathy with congestive heart failure have been reported in patients without known predisposition to these events, and without other etiologies being established

Decreased Peripheral Blood Counts

  • Decreased peripheral blood counts in all cell lines, including rare pancytopenia and thrombocytopenia, have been reported from postmarketing experience in AVONEX-treated patients

Thrombotic Microangiopathy

  • Cases of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA), including thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and hemolytic uremic syndrome, some fatal, have been reported with interferon beta products, including AVONEX. Cases have been reported several weeks to years after starting interferon beta products. Discontinue AVONEX if clinical symptoms and laboratory findings consistent with TMA occur, and manage as clinically indicated

Seizures

  • Seizures have been temporally associated with the use of beta interferons in clinical trials and postmarketing safety surveillance. It is not known whether these events were related to the effects of multiple sclerosis alone, to AVONEX, or to a combination of both

Autoimmune Disorders

  • Postmarketing reports of autoimmune disorders of multiple target organs in AVONEX-treated patients included idiopathic thrombocytopenia, hyper- and hypothyroidism, and rare cases of autoimmune hepatitis. If AVONEX-treated patients develop a new autoimmune disorder, consider stopping the therapy

Laboratory Tests

  • In addition to those laboratory tests normally required for monitoring patients with multiple sclerosis, complete blood and differential white blood cell counts, platelet counts, and blood chemistries, including liver function tests, are recommended during AVONEX therapy. Patients with myelosuppression may require more intensive monitoring of complete blood cell counts, with differential and platelet counts. Thyroid function should be monitored periodically. If patients have or develop symptoms of thyroid dysfunction (hypo- or hyperthyroidism), thyroid function tests should be performed according to standard medical practice

MOST COMMON SIDE EFFECTS

  • The most commonly reported adverse reactions (at least 5% more frequent on AVONEX than on placebo) were flu-like symptoms. Symptoms can include chills, fever, myalgia and asthenia occurring within hours to days following an injection. The most frequently reported adverse reactions resulting in clinical intervention were flu-like symptoms and depression

Reference: 1. AVONEX Prescribing Information. Cambridge, MA: Biogen.

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Getting started Dosing Support program
Efficacy
AVONEX efficacy Pivotal trials Long-term follow-up studies
Safety
Well-understood safety profile Adverse reactions Managing common side effects Special populations
Access and reimbursement
Access and
reimbursement

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