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Biotech / Medical : wla(warner lambert) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: billkirn who wrote (787)	5/27/1999 7:28:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 942

SmithKline to price new diabetes drug cheaply- WSJ WASHINGTON, May 27 (Reuters) - SmithKline Beecham <SB.L> Plc said Thursday it would price its new diabetes drug, Avandia, competitively enough to win patients from Rezulin, a similar product from Warner-Lambert Co. <WLA.N> and from other diabetes medicines, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Patients will pay about $1 less for Avandia than Rezulin, which was introduced in 1997 with much hype as the first drug that tackles the underlying causes of diabetes, the Journal said. Rezulin has been linked to liver damage and about 30 deaths, according to the newspaper. Both drugs are intended for patients suffering from Type2, or adult-onset diabetes, which afflicts about 14 million Americans whose bodies have lost the ability to use insulin, the hormone that processes blood sugar, the newspaper said. Avandia and Rezulin both work to help the diabetic body use its own insulin thus lowering blood sugar, the Journal said. Though Avandia has not shown signs that it can cause liver damage, experts say such side effects may not surface until scores of people start taking the drug. The Journal quoted David Saks, an analyst with Gruntal & Co., saying Rezulin will likely lose about $100 million in sales to Avandia, a drug he predicted would rack up $300 million in sales.