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Biotech / Medical : Pharma News Only (pfe,mrk,wla, sgp, ahp, bmy, lly) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (438)	6/30/1998 12:16:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 1722

Pfizer Applies for Viagra to Qualify for Swiss Insurance Refund Bloomberg News June 30, 1998, 6:04 a.m. ET Pfizer Applies for Viagra to Qualify for Swiss Insurance Refund Zurich, June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer (Schweiz) AG, a unit of New York-based drugmaker Pfizer Inc., said it asked the Swiss Social Security office to add its impotence pill Viagra to a list of drugs covered by health insurance in Switzerland. Pfizer said men suffering from ''acute'' erection problems should be able to claim insurance for Viagra, the only pill available that treats impotence. Reports have suggested the cost of subsidizing sales of the drug may be as much as 200 million Swiss francs ($131 million) a year -- an amount Pfizer has said is exaggerated. Swiss pharmacies began selling Viagra yesterday. Switzerland is the first European country and the third nation in the world to approve the sale of the drug. More than 1.5 million Viagra prescriptions were written in the U.S. within weeks of its launch in April. Swiss Interior Minister Ruth Dreifuss told SonntagsBlick that users of Viagra should pay for the drug themselves. Dreifuss said the government will apply ''strict criteria'' when it decides whether to subsidize the drug. The government decides which treatments should entitle users to recoup their costs from their health insurer in Switzerland. It also contributes to the cost of buying health insurance. In the U.S., Clinton administration officials are considering whether to require state Medicaid programs to cover the cost of prescribing Viagra, as private insurers wrestle with the problem of paying for the impotence pill. Medicaid is the health insurance program for the poor, jointly financed by state and the federal government. The federal government sets certain benefit and coverage requirements and the states administer the Medicaid programs. An estimate shows the cost of requiring all states to cover Viagra would cost the health insurance program more than $100 million a year, Florida Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles and Utah Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt wrote in a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. Last week Aetna Inc.'s Aetna/U.S. Healthcare managed-care unit said it won't pay for Pfizer's Viagra under its regular prescription-drug coverage, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an Aetna spokeswoman. Kaiser Permanente Group, the largest U.S. health-maintenance organization, said this month it would stop paying for Viagra because continuing to meet the cost of prescribing the drug would force Kaiser to raise rates. Pfizer (Schweiz) shares were unchanged at 167.75 Swiss francs on the Swiss Exchange. Pfizer stock fell 2 to 109 15/16 in New York yesterday, as the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. regulators received about 100 reports of men suffering serious adverse reactions or dying after taking Viagra. --Sarah Knight in the Zurich newsroom (41-1) 224 4111/ab

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (438)	6/30/1998 12:21:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 1722

Merck Wins FDA Approval to Sell Migraine Drug Maxalt in U.S. Bloomberg News June 30, 1998, 10:07 a.m. ET Merck Wins FDA Approval to Sell Migraine Drug Maxalt in U.S. Washington, June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Merck & Co., the largest U.S. drugmaker, said it won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to sell the first treatment for migraines in quick- dissolving tablet form. The FDA cleared a standard tablet and a disintegrating tablet form of the drug Maxalt, which is expected to eventually generate sales of $300 million a year. The disintegrating tablet means people suffering from the debilitating headaches can take the pills without liquids -- allowing it to dissolve on the tongue. ''Patients can take the Maxalt-MLT easily and discreetly, even in the middle of a movie or a meeting,'' said Stephen Silberstein, director of Philadelphia's Jefferson Headache Clinic and a researcher on Merck's studies. That's important, he said, because a migraine ''attacks fast, usually without warning, and wreaks havoc regardless of what's going on in your life at the moment.'' Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based Merck announced the approval before the market opened. Company shares rose 1 5/16 to 134 1/16 in recent trading. Maxalt enters a multibillion dollar market for prescription migraine treatments currently dominated by Glaxo Wellcome Plc's blockbuster drug Imitrex. U.K.-based Glaxo also won approval for another migraine drug this year, and Pfizer Inc. and SmithKline Beecham Plc are among other companies looking to get a piece of the market that now includes about 24 million Americans. New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., meanwhile, earlier this year won FDA approval to sell its Excedrin as the first over- the-counter treatment for migraines. In studies, Merck found that Maxalt, also known as rizatriptan benzoate, could relieve migraine pain in as much as 77 percent of patients within two hours. It also reduced nausea and other migraine symptoms, the company said. Migraines are severe headaches that affect one in every 10 people, striking women more often than men. They can affect children as young as three years old and most often begin to strike before the age of 20, with attacks lasting from two hours to two days. The migraines can be triggered for a variety of reasons, including menstruation, stress, and as a side effect of a drug. A tendency toward migraines often runs in a family. Merck said it expects Maxalt to sell for between $14.06 and $14.63 a tablet after pharmacy markups. The company said it will offer the drug at a wholesale price of $11.25 per tablet. --Kristin Jensen in Washington (202) 624-1843/bd

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (438)	6/30/1998 12:23:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

Japanese Health Officials Investigate Magazine's Access To Viagra June 30, 1998 10:45 AM TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- A Japanese weekly magazine is being investigated for offering to take orders from readers for the impotency drug Viagra, which hasn't yet received marketing approval in Japan, a government official said Tuesday. According to the Associated Press, the magazine, Shukan Gendai, is suspected of breaking Japanese pharmaceutical laws. Viagra, sold by Pfizer Inc. (PFE), hasn't yet been approved by the Health and Welfare Ministry and sales in Japan are banned. "If there's been any violation, we will take appropriate measures," Ministry official Toru Yamamoto said. The investigation comes as the ministry is moving to speed up the approval of the drug by using U.S. scientific data rather than relying on tests in Japan, officials said Tuesday. Shukan Gendai's July 11 edition includes postcard-sized order forms that readers can fill out and send to the publisher, Kodansha Ltd. The magazine offers to forward the orders to a company that could get 10 pills for $190. An article in the same issue details the booming black market for the drug in Japan, where a single Viagra pill reportedly can sell for 50,000 yen ($352.95). The magazine also describes the various ways Japanese can buy the drug via mail-order companies, the Internet or special Viagra shopping trips to the U.S. arranged by a Japanese travel agency. "We're happy to help our readers obtain Viagra at the proper price, and find a solution to a problem they've had for a long time," the magazine said in the article. Viagra, which came on the U.S. market in April, is supposed to be prescribed by urologists and family physicians to treat impotent men, but the hot-selling sex pill is turning up on the street, on the Internet and in discos, where it is gobbled up by healthy men. But Pfizer has said that the impotency drug won't turn healthy men into "super-studs." There have been 30 reports of men dying after taking Viagra, although most of them were elderly, with other health problems. Pfizer said Viagra users shouldn't combine the drug with nitrates, commonly taken by heart patients, because nitrates and Viagra dilate blood vessels by acting on the same chemical mechanism, causing serious cardiovascular side effects. Copyright (c) 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.