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Biotech / Medical : VPHM - Viropharma Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: scaram(o)uche who wrote (139)	7/14/1999 9:05:00 PM
From: sun	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2557

GUMM - better than VPHM .... Message 10499461 ============================================================ To: Wally Mastroly (699 ) From: Howard D. Epstein, M.D. Wednesday, Jul 14 1999 9:02AM ET Reply # of 706 VPHM pleconaril vs. Zicam I am not concerned about pleconaril because it is a prescription drug that will be: 1. Expensive 2. Not available easily to the general public. 3. Two years too late by the time it might be considered any competition. 4. available after you have a cold for several days. What percent of people can get into see a doctor for a COLD in less than a day? It will take more than 2 days to get to a doctor to obtain. See #2. You will be able to buy Zicam in any Walmart, KMart,Buy-Rite,Albertosn's, Target, and many others just 8-12 weeks from NOW. 5. Being tested on especially aggressive upper respiratory tract infections. The only place it might be competition is in the hospitalized immunosuppressed. The HMOs might pay for Zicam as a first line, but I doubt the other as a first line without "approval". 6. Who knows the side effects? Antivirals often have unpleasant side effects that we probably do not need to get into. While I understand the curiosity and certainly would monitor the situation, I think in 1999-2000 Zicam is the winner. The effectiveness of pleconaril will not take away any of the cost and OTC advantages of Zicam since people are generally pretty practical these days when it comes to cheaper, faster alternatives.