Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : Kos Pharmaceuticals, Inc (KOSP) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IRWIN JAMES FRANKEL who wrote (55)	12/11/2001 8:25:25 PM
From: quidditch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 118

Included in Merck's earnings 2002 warning was this note on Zetia, a statin drug for which Merck has extremely high expectations. snip <Merck officials said they expect U.S. regulators to accept a marketing application by the first quarter of 2002 for a novel cholesterol treatment called Zetia, also known by its chemical name ezetimibe. The filing for Zetia, a drug discovered by Schering-Plough Corp. and now being co-developed with Merck, is to use the medicine by itself or in combination with other "statin" cholesterol drugs like Zocor and Pfizer Inc.'s popular Lipitor. Zetia lowers bad LDL cholesterol levels in the body by up to 18 percent by itself and boosts the effectiveness of other cholesterol drugs by the same factor. Merck officials said the company would ask U.S. regulators by late 2003 to approve a pill containing Zetia and Zocor. Some analysts expect the product to generate U.S. sales of up to $6.5 billion within two years of launch -- in time to win over patients before Zocor's patent expires. But profits from the Zetia-Zocor combination would have to be shared with Schering-Plough. The two companies are also co-developing a pill containing Merck's asthma drug Singulair and Schering-Plough's Claritin, an antihistamine whose patent expires late next year. > end snip What is the pharmaceutical profile of zetia compared to advicor? Does Merck's tout of zetia push BMY one way or the other? quid