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

To: BigKNY3 who wrote (7148)	3/6/1999 7:23:00 AM
From: BigKNY3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9523

MS HEALTH Reports 228,003 U.S. Celebrex Prescriptions Dispensed in Final Week of February LONDON--(BW HealthWire)--March 5, 1999-- Total Prescriptions Written Rise 39 Percent Over Previous Week; Mail-Order Prescriptions Increase 54 Percent IMS HEALTH (NYSE:RX) today reported that for the week ending Feb. 26, total prescriptions dispensed for Celebrex in the U.S. were an estimated 228,003, up 39 percent from the previous week. Celebrex mail-order prescriptions totaled 10,447 -- a 54 percent rise from the week ending Feb. 19. Searle's Celebrex is the first in a new class of drugs called Cox-2 inhibitors, used to treat the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis as well as osteoarthritis. IMS HEALTH's regular weekly prescription activity report covering the week ending Feb. 26 becomes available on Monday, March 8. IMS HEALTH is the world's leading provider of information solutions to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. For the week ending Feb. 19, the majority of physicians dispensing Celebrex continued to be Primary Care Physicians, who wrote 80,942 prescriptions, or 51.3 percent of the total. Orthopedic Surgeons and Rheumatologists prescribed the next largest segment of Celebrex prescriptions, dispensing a combined total of 45,283 prescriptions. The average Celebrex prescription size varies by distribution channel, IMS HEALTH reported. For example, for Celebrex prescriptions dispensed by a chain drugstore or a food store with a pharmacy, the average prescription size is 41 tablets. The size of a typical mail-order prescription for Celebrex is 124 tablets. Since the launch of Celebrex in January, Daypro -- Searle's non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) due to go off patent later this year -- has experienced a decrease in prescription activity. For the week ending Jan. 22, 104,624 prescriptions were written for Daypro; four weeks later, 93,489 Daypro prescriptions were written.