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Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zurdo who wrote (3959)	7/6/1998 4:00:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 9523

Reuters: Pfizer up despite refusal of HMOs to cover Viagra Monday July 6, 3:41 pm Eastern Time NEW YORK, July 6 (Reuters) - Shares of Pfizer Inc. (PFE - news) rose on Monday as the company vigorously defended the safety of its impotence drug Viagra amid refusals by two U.S. health insurers to pay for the medication because of safety concerns. Shares were up 1-1/16 to 108-9/16 in afternoon trade. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Monday that Prudential HealthCare, a unit of Prudential Insurance Co of America, and Humana Inc. (HUM - news) decided late last week not to pay for Viagra due to concern about deaths and adverse reactions among men who took the drug. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in mid-June that it had received reports of about 30 men dying after taking the pill, which became the fastest-selling new drug in history after being approved by the agency three months earlier. But the FDA and Pfizer have said none of the deaths have been directly linked to the drug. Furthermore, they have said it is safe if used appropriately and that the deaths have raised no new concerns beyond warnings already noted on Viagra's label. Pfizer spokeswoman Mariann Caprino on Monday reaffirmed the company's strong faith in the drug's safety. She said over 2.5 million prescriptions had been written for Viagra -- typically for men over 45, many of whom have underlying health problems such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular problems. ''The number of adverse events of people on Viagra is below what you would expect even in a general population of men who had never taken the drug,'' Caprino said. ''If you took two million men over age 45, you'd expect several hundred to die in any month. But the number of deaths among people taking Viagra is nowhere near that amount. We see nothing here that is cause for alarm,'' Caprino said. The FDA in June said several of the deaths were of men who were given nitroglycerin in violation of a prominent warning on the Viagra label that use of such ''organic nitrates'' by people taking Viagra could cause a dangerous fall in blood pressure. Other health maintenance organizations, including Kaiser Permanente and Aetna Inc. (AET - news) unit Aetna/U.S. Healthcare, have refused to cover Viagra, citing costs of the drug, which retails for about $10 a pill. But Caprino said Prudential and Humana were the first to deny coverage because of safety concerns. Hambrecht & Quist analyst Alex Zisson said he believed cost was clearly the dominant motivating factor spurring insurers to deny coverage for the blue, diamond-shaped pills. He said many seem to consider the drug more a ''lifestyle'' medication than a disease treatment. ''Lifestyle drugs are a problem for managed care companies because they are having a hard enough time paying expenses for serious diseases. Money they pay for quality-of-life drugs comes right out of their earnings,'' Zisson said. Federal health officials, however, have begun notifying states that their Medicaid programs must pay for Viagra although state officials may later end reimbursement for the drug if they determine it is being abused or inappropriately prescribed.