Monsanto's Celebrex Prescriptions Near 115,000 in Latest Week
Bloomberg News
February 16, 1999, 5:18 p.m. ET
Monsanto's Celebrex Prescriptions Near 115,000 in Latest Week
St. Louis, Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Monsanto Co.'s new
arthritis drug Celebrex had almost 115,000 prescriptions filled
in the week ended Sunday, NDC Health Information Services said,
as doctors quickly adopted a painkiller that seems less likely
to cause stomach bleeding than aspirin and ibuprofen.
Approved in late December, Celebrex has had one of the most
successful U.S. introductions ever for a new medicine, surpassed
only by Pfizer Inc.'s anti-impotence pill Viagra, introduced
last year, NDC said.
Celebrex has already surpassed the success of Warner-
Lambert Co.'s cholesterol reducing drug, Lipitor. Its 1997
introduction had been considered the best ever in the U.S.
before sales of Viagra started in 1998.
In its fourth week on the market, Viagra had 294,000
prescriptions, compared to Celebrex's 115,000. Lipitor had about
23,000 prescriptions in the same period, NDC said.
Concerns about ulcers and stomach bleeding with competing
drugs will likely make Celebrex a blockbuster with sales
eventually topping $1 billion, investors said. Although rare,
the side effects of older painkillers such as ibuprofen can be
serious, causing an estimated 107,000 hospitalizations and
16,500 deaths a year in the U.S.
''We can use this drug with confidence that as physicians,
we are doing no harm,'' to our patients, said Jay Goldstein, an
associate professor of medicine at the University of Illinois at
Chicago.
Monsanto, based in St. Louis, fell 1/2 to close at 46 7/8.
Celebrex won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in late
December.
Complications
As a gastroenterologist, Goldstein said he is consulted at
least once a week on patients with ulcers or stomach bleeding
caused by the older painkillers, a class of medicines known as
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS.
''I see the complications,'' said Goldstein, who helped
Monsanto test the drug by enrolling about 200 patients in
different studies. ''I've spent many a night in the intensive
care unit'' treating patients.
Celebrex is the first of a new class of painkillers known
as the Cox-2 inhibitors. Merck & Co. could introduce a rival
drug, Vioxx, this year.
These new drugs appear to work by blocking an enzyme linked
to pain and inflammation without hampering a related enzyme that
helps protect the stomach from its own acid. NSAIDS, such as
aspirin and ibuprofen, interfere with both enzymes, sometimes
causing erosions in the stomach's protective lining.
''It's like when you take a divot on the fairway,''
Goldstein said of the holes he's seen in stomach linings.
NDC's DirectRx service tracks prescription sales at U.S.
pharmacies. NDC Health is a unit of Atlanta-based National Data
Corp
Although Celebrex has been available since January,
Monsanto's Searle drugmaking unit won't start its all-out
marketing effort for the drug until Monday. Working with Pfizer
Inc. as a partner, Monsanto intends to send salespeople to
doctors' offices across the U.S. to promote the new drug.
--Kerry Dooley in the Princeton newsroom (609) 279-4016 /mfr
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