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

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (7048)	2/19/1999 9:12:00 PM
From: BigKNY3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

Monsanto-Celebrex -2: Could Face Competition From Merck 02/17/99 Dow Jones News Service Monsanto is, of course, pleased by Celebrex's rapid take off, but the company remains "cautiously optimistic," said company spokeswoman Scarlett Foster. The drug won't "officially" launch until Feb. 22. "That's when our sales representatives will be out meeting with doctors and providing background information on the drug," Foster said. "There hasn't been a concerted sales effort yet." Since Jan. 20, the company has given away samples to help spur interest in the drug and intends to provide them to 45,000 doctors. Even before Celebrex received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval on the last day of 1998 as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, analysts predicted that patients would be eager to try the drug. Ira S. Loss, healthcare analyst at HSBC Washington Analysis, said Celebrex's explosive start is "right along the lines of what I expected." "Any new drug for the treatment of arthritis will take off immediately because people are typically unhappy with what they're taking," Loss said. "There's been lots of excitement about the potentially lower side effects." Loss expects Celebrex to alter the standards of treating arthritis. "This is the beginning of a major realignment of drugs people will take," Loss said. The FDA is expected to make a decision within the next few months about another Cox-2 drug, Merck & Co.'s (MRK) Vioxx. Merck filed its FDA new drug application in November for Vioxx to be approved as a treatment for osteoarthritis and pain. "The Merck drug will intensify marketing in this class," Loss said. "That will expand the utilization of these drugs at the expense of the established products. There will be plenty of room for both." Neil Sweig, pharmaceutical analyst at Southeast Research Partners, said after all of Celebrex's initial hype winds down, what will determine its success is the actual number of side effects users experience. In studies Celebrex users reported fewer gastrointestinal problems compared to those taking other NSAIDs. "The important issue is will the side effect profile hold true for these Cox-2 drugs after they are in hundreds of thousands of patients," Sweig said. "There is no way to answer that until more time has passed." Osteoarthritis afflicts almost 16 million Americans, according to the Arthritis Foundation. The disease is a noninflammatory degenerative joint disease, which causes joint pain and stiffness and occurs mostly in older people. About 2.1 million people in the U.S. have rheumatoid arthritis, which is an inflammatory disease thought to be caused by an autoimmune disorder. It causes chronic pain, stiffness and swelling. Patients can lose function in joints and organs. Celebrex is made by Monsanto's G.C. Searle & Co. pharmaceutical unit.