AstraZeneca announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved once-daily SEROQUEL XR™ (quetiapine fumarate) Extended-Release Tablets for maintenance treatment of schizophrenia in adult patients. On May 17, 2007, the FDA approved SEROQUEL XR for the acute treatment of schizophrenia in adult patients.

Schizophrenia patients experience high rates of symptom relapse, and as a result, there is an important need for long-term treatment options for schizophrenia to help reduce the risk of the recurrence of acute psychotic episodes.1,2

In the clinical trial supporting this approval, patients with schizophrenia who were treated with SEROQUEL XR experienced a significantly longer time to relapse, compared with patients receiving placebo. Patients receiving SEROQUEL XR demonstrated an 84% reduction in the relative risk of relapse (hazard ratio 0.16; p