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Biotech / Medical : Monsanto Co. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (744)	12/9/1998 5:57:00 PM
From: jopawa	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2539

Anthony, Here's Reuters version. Wednesday December 9, 12:40 pm Eastern Time Merck beefs up sales force, seeks new Zocor use WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J., Dec 9 (Reuters) - The giant drug maker Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK - news) said Wednesday it had added 700 people to its 4,000-member U.S. sales force. At its annual business briefing to analysts here, Merck executive David Anstice said 600 of the new sales people would be making sales calls to primary-care physicians and would help support the sale next year of the company's new pain killer Vioxx, which is awaiting marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Anstice said the other new sales people would be used to promote Merck's flagship anti-cholesterol drug Zocor, and to make sales to hospitals. Wall Street analysts have forecast that Vioxx, if approved, could become a multibillion-dollar blockbuster drug. Merck filed a new drug application for Vioxx in November, months after Monsanto Co. (NYSE:MTC - news) unit G.D. Searle filed its own NDA for rival experimental drug Celebrex. Vioxx and Celebrex are the first two members of a promising new class of drugs that block pain by inhibiting the so-called Cox-2 enzyme linked to inflammation. Current commonly-used therapies, such as aspirin, block the enzyme, but also block the Cox-1 enzyme that protects the stomach lining, thereby causing ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding linked to thousands of deaths in the U.S. every year. Vioxx and Celebrex are believed to selectively block the Cox-2 enzyme, with minimal interference to the protective Cox-1 enzyme. Merck is seeking permission to use Vioxx to treat patients with osteoarthritis and for acute pain. Searle is seeking permission to use Celebrex for patients with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Anstice told hundreds of analysts gather at the annual briefing that Merck intends to help increase its revenues by keeping Zocor competitive with its biggest rival Warner-Lambert Cos (NYSE:WLA - news) blockbuster drug Lipitor. He said that, in that vein, Merck two months ago filed an application with the FDA for permission to use Zocor to elevate the levels of ''good'' HDL cholesterol in patients. The drug is now commonly used to lower ''bad'' LDL cholesterol levels. He said Zocor can increase HDL levels between 13 percent to 16 percent in patients. ''That is going to be important'' in expanding the use of Zocor, he said. Anstice forecast that Zocor and Lipitor would increasingly dominate the ''statin'' class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, pulling increasingly ahead of the Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY - news) statin Pravachol -- that companies flagship drug. ''I think increasingly you'll see this market turn into a two-horse race,'' Anstice said, noting that Merck earlier this year received approval for an 80 mg dose of Zocor, which researchers have said is comparable in potency to Lipitor.