Ulcer Drug Is World's Top Seller
By Phil Galewitz
AP Business Writer
Tuesday, February 16, 1999; 11:54 p.m. EST
NEW YORK (AP)-- Impotence drug Viagra may garner more press, but it has a ways to go before it surpasses the success of ulcer drug Prilosec.
Last year Prilosec became the pharmaceutical industry's first $5 billion prescription medication. In contrast, Viagra had sales of only $788 million last year.
Prilosec sales rose 27 percent in 1998 to $5.14 billion, Swedish drugmaker Astra AB said Tuesday. From 1993 until last July, Astra shared half of its U.S. sales with drug giant Merck & Co.
Prilosec, also commonly used for heartburn, has been the world's top selling drug since 1996, when it overtook another popular ulcer drug, Zantac.
Prilosec beat out the No. 2 drug, Zocor, by more than $1.1 billion in 1998. Zocor, a cholesterol drug made by Merck, had worldwide sales of $3.95 billion last year.
In third place was Prozac, the antidepressant sold by Eli Lilly and Co., which had $2.81 billion in worldwide sales.
The figures come from the companies' year-end financial reports.
A blockbuster drug is considered one with annual worldwide sales exceeding $1 billion. About 25 drugs surpassed that mark last year.
Astra officials say a new direct-to-consumer advertising campaign and a larger sales force helped boost sales of Prilosec, which is known as Losec outside the United States. The company has also convinced doctors to use Prilosec on a variety of gastrointestinal disorders in addition to ulcers.
Analysts say Prilosec works better and quicker than other ulcer and heartburn medications. The drug is aimed at a huge market -- more than 21 million people experience heartburn in the United States alone.
''The patient population is enormous and it's an easy drug to use,'' said Sergio Traversa, an analyst with Mehta Partners. It is also a drug that users must take everyday, usually for months at a time, he said.
Analysts say Prilosec's days as the world's top-selling medication are numbered. The drug loses its U.S. patent in 2001, paving the way for a rival company to make a cheaper, generic form.
Also, Abbott Laboratories has a rival drug already on the market called Prevacid, and American Home Products has Protonix awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Many analysts believe that cholesterol drug Lipitor, marketed by Warner Lambert and Pfizer, could top them all, with sales expected to surpass $6 billion in 2002. Lipitor had $2.2 billion in sales last year, making it the sixth best-selling drug
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