Prescriptions For Monsanto's Arthritis Drug Continue To Rise
February 17, 1999 2:16 PM
CHICAGO -(Dow Jones)- Monsanto Co.'s arthritis-pain drug Celebrex
continues to chalk up new prescriptions at a pace unprecedented for that
drug category.
In its fourth week on the market, the new medication produced 115,000
prescriptions, up from 83,000 during the third week. It thus continues to
rank No. 2 among recent drugs in racking up prodigious early sales.
Celebrex lags only Viagra, the impotence drug from Pfizer Inc. (PFE),
which achieved 294,000 prescriptions during its fourth week on the
market before peaking after three months.
Celebrex continues to significantly outpace the fourth-week sales of
cholesterol medication Lipitor, the No. 3 recent drug in generating early
sales. It entered the market in 1997. Lipitor, sold by Warner-Lambert Co.
(WLA), is projected to be a $3 billion drug this year. The prescription
figures were supplied by NDC Health Information Services, a leading
supplier of market data to the pharmaceutical industry.
Monsanto (MTC) co-markets Celebrex with Pfizer, and the two are
expected to share profits from the drug. The companies haven't disclosed
how profits are to be divided. However, some analysts estimate that
Monsanto will keep 55 to 60% of the profit. These rough estimates are
based on Wall Street's analysis of the experience with Lipitor, which is
also co-marketed with Pfizer.
The Celebrex numbers are especially impressive, given that Monsanto, of
St. Louis, and Pfizer, of New York, haven't really begun marketing yet.
The official beginning of marketing is next week. "Detailing" visits to
doctors, along with advertising supporting the drug, will start then.
Celebrex is the first of a new class of arthritis drugs known as Cox-2
inhibitors. They act against an enzyme, part of the pain process, that is
called cyclooxygenase-2, or Cox-2 for short. The Cox-2 drugs have
special promise, in the view of many doctors, because clinical data
suggest that these medications may not cause damage to patients'
gastrointestinal tracts, as current drugs do. The current pain drugs,
called NSAIDs for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, lead to bleeding
ulcers in a small minority of patients. Bleeding ulcers sometimes are
fatal, and doctors have been looking for a gentler medication for chronic
treatment of pain.
- By Thomas M. Burton; 201-938-5099
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