BRAND WATCH
Title: BRAND WATCH , Drug Store News, 01917587, 10/22/2001, Vol. 23, Issue 15
Section: CHAIN PHARMACY CATEGORY NEWS
Bayer files for ED drug approval
Bayer submitted a new drug application for vardenafil, its lead pipeline product, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Mexican health authorities. Vardenafil treats erectile dysfunction. The condition affects 30 million men in the United States, but only an estimated 11 percent seek treatment. Both are vying for a piece of Pfizers Viagra (sildenafil citrate) market share. Vardenafil is trying to position itself as a particular help to diabetics with ED. Recent phase three trial results for vardenafil showed improved erectile function in 72 percent of patients with type I and type 2 diabetes.
N.Y. prescriptions surge in wake of World Trade Center collapse
Sales of Bayer antibiotic Cipro (ciprofloxacin HCl), antidepressants such as GlaxoSmithKlines Paxil (paroxetine HCl) and Eli Lilly s Prozac (fluoxetine HCl) and prescription sleeping pills Ambien (zolpidem tartrate) and Sonata (zalepon) from Pharmacia and Wyeth surged in New York following the Sept. 11 fall of the World Trade Center. Published reports noted that some New York pharmacists sold 1,000 Cipro tablets in one three-day period after the Sept. 11 disaster, up from an average 300 tablets every two to three days.
Cipro is used to treat a number of diseases, including anthrax. It is thought consumers became anxious about the possibility of germ warfare following the terrorist strikes.
Other pharmacists reported a run on antidepressants and sleeping pills in the weeks following the attack, with one Upper East Side pharmacist reporting an almost immediate 50 percent increase in Ambien sales. Drug stockpiling so far has had a benign effect on the supply.
Novartis lung drug approved for COPD
Foradil Aerolizer (formoterol fumarate inhalation powder) from Novartis received FDA approval for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema. This is a new indication for Foradil, which got FDA approval in February as a maintenance drug for asthma and for the prevention of exercise-induced bronchospasm.
Sixteen million people in the United States have been diagnosed with COPD, but twice as many may have it. Untreated, it can cause emphysema, chronic bronchitis and irreversible damage to the lungs. Smoking causes most COPD.
Study examines Zyban’s use in smoking cessation, weight loss
A Mayo Clinic study suggests prescription drug Zyban (wellbutrin) may help keep ex-smokers off cigarettes and help them maintain or even lose weight. More than half of the 800 smokers studied stopped smoking after seven weeks on the drug. Half of that group continued taking the drug for a year. At the end of the year, 55 percent of the Zyban group was still smoke-free. Two years later, however, similar numbers of the Zyban and non-Zyban groups had relapsed. Women in both groups gained some weight, but those on Zyban gained less up to two years later.
Zyban maker GlaxoSmithKline funded the study. GSK recently distributed important safety information about Zyban in response to the Canadian Health Department s belief that the drug is linked to 19 deaths in the country. The supplemental information indicates that the drug can cause nausea, headache, seizures and high blood pressure.
PHOTO (COLOR): Bayer’s Cipro
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Source: Drug Store News, 10/22/2001, Vol. 23 Issue 15, p11, 1p
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