WHY USE CLARITIN WHEN YOU HAVE GUMM AND QUIGLEY? LOL
Wyeth wins OK for Claritin copycat, J&J bows out
Friday December 20, 4:12 pm ET
NEW YORK, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Wyeth (NYSE:WYE - News) on Friday said U.S. regulators had approved its rival over-the-counter version of Schering-Plough's allergy drug Claritin and that it will begin shipping the less-expensive product next week.
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Later in the day, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ - News) acknowledged it had nixed earlier plans to sell its own non-prescription form of Claritin -- leaving Claritin and Alavert to fight it out among themselves on drugstore shelves.
Madison, New Jersey-based Wyeth said the U. S. Food and Drug Administration had cleared Alavert, its 10-milligram tablet that quickly dissolves on the tongue. It is a copycat of Schering-Plough's non-prescription RediTabs, which can retail for almost $1 per tablet in drugstores.
Wyeth said in a release the suggested retail price for a package of 48 Alavert tablets is about $27, or about 57 cents per tablet.
Schering-Plough, which has lost its U.S. marketing exclusivity on Claritin, began selling it without a prescription in U.S. stores on December 10. Its five formulations sell for between 90 cents and $1.35 per tablet, a steep discount from its former cost of up to $2.75 per tablet as a prescription drug.
"We have no plans to launch loratadine at this time," a J&J spokesman told Reuters, referring to the chemical name of Claritin. "But as for as the future, we can't comment on our plans," the spokesman added.
Johnson & Johnson, whose aggressive consumer products division sells Tylenol painkiller, declined to explain why it had changed course from its earlier plans to challenge Claritin.
"We've decided to concentrate our attention on Tylenol allergy, flu and sinus products," the J&J spokesman said, declining further comment.
Claritin garnered annual sales of over $3 billion in 2001 as a prescription drug, thanks to huge advertising campaigns and the fact it does not cause drowsiness seen with older allergy treatments.
Claritin and Alavert will compete not only with each other, but also against two far-costlier prescription treatments -- Aventis SA's (NYSE:AVE - News) non-sedating Allegra and Pfizer Inc.s (NYSE:PFE - News) Zyrtec, which causes sleepiness in a fair number of patients. |
