Cozaar and Hyzaar sales up 11% in Q2 2008

Merck & Co. who manufacture top selling drugs such as Cozaar and Singulair reported an increase in earnings for Q2 of 2008.

Cozaar which is Merck’s medication to treat hypertension along with Hyzaar improved sales by 11% which took sales figures to almost $1 billion at $941 million.

Sales of Cozaar and Hyzaar should continue to grow until the patent protection expires, which is when generic forms of the two drugs will hit the market at greatly reduced prices. Merck has already experienced the effects of generic equivalent drugs, with the drug Fosamax dropping a massive 48% in sales after the patent expired.

Cozaar is used to treat patients with high blood pressure, kidney disease, and patients at risk of stroke.

Selecting a reliable online pharmacy

With the increased financial pressure on families and individuals who require medication, a lot of people are turning to buying prescription drugs online where prices are generally cheaper.

One of the major hurdles to buying prescription drugs online is the safety and quality of the purchased drugs. There are 2 types of drugs that you can buy through an online pharmacy:

Brand Name – These are the official, original brand name drugs available at a cheaper cost for one reason or another. One of the reasons a brand name drug may be cheaper to buy online is the supplier is sourcing them from another country. This doesn’t mean that the drug is fake, it just means that the cost of the same drug in another country is cheaper and thus the pharmacy is able to pass on the savings to the consumer.

Generic Drugs – These are equivalents of the brand name drugs, containing the same active ingredients. Active ingredients are what does the work in drugs where as other ingredients just affect things like colour, texture, etc. Generic drugs are much cheaper than brand name drugs and often offered even by your local pharmacy. Generic drugs still need to go through proper testing and approval from the governing body in the country that the generic drug is produced in.

The one pitfall as discussed earlier about buying drugs online is the safety and quality of the drugs. There’s no global governing body that looks after online pharmacies and therefore you do get some illegal and dangerous pharmacies showing up online. It’s a tough situation to be in because on the one hand you are trying to save money or desperate for the medication yet on the other hand you may end up worse off if you are given an inferior product.

There are several steps that you can take to ensure that your online pharmacy purchase is as safe as possible:

Pharmacy User Forums – Community feedback is a good way to find reliable online pharmacies. Pharmacy Reviews is a new forum I found that attempts to provide users with a place where they can share their experiences and provide online pharmacy reviews.

Pharmacy Verification Sites – Websites such as Pharmacy Checker provide a verification program that requires each participating pharmacy to pass through a series of test to ensure they are legitimate. In fact, Google requires any pharmacy trying to advertise through their AdWords program to be Pharmacy Checker verified. At the very least, you should make sure the online pharmacy is on this list.

The bottom line is that pharmaceutical companies need to make medication more affordable. With the emergence of online shopping there will continue to be a trend towards people buying drugs online so please take care when selecting an online pharmacy and my advice is that once you find a reliable pharmacy, stick with it no matter how much cheaper another place looks to be.

University teams up with Pfizer to improve Celebrex manufacturing process

Chemical engineering students from Rowan University have engaged with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to conduct research into making the manufacturing process for Pfizer’s arthritis drug Celebrex.

The 3 students are working closely with Pfizer engineers with the end goal of reducing the net quantity of solvent waste from the manufacturing process of Celebrex.

After presenting their results to Pfizer management in NYC, senior manager of Process Engineering at Pfizer Greg Hounsell had praise for the students:

“Student work to date has been quite impressive. Their ideas for various processes are beneficial to us as we explore alternative methods for waste minimization to improve the environmental footprint of the process and make the operation more economical”.

Celebrex is Pfizer’s top selling prescription drug for the treatment of pain in arthritis patients.

Benicar reverses narrowing of arteries

A study funded by Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo Inc. showed that their product Benicar (sold as Olmetec in Europe) helps reverse the narrowing of arteries in patients with high blood pressure.

The study was conducted in the USA at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the results published in the Journal of the American Society of Hypertension. The study concluded that after a year of treatment using Benicar (chemical name olmesartan medoxomil), patients with high blood pressure saw improvements in artery abnormalities and also found that arterial architecture were returned to normal levels, as opposed to no change in patients treated with atenolol.

Benicar belongs to a class of anti-hypertensive medications that block the angiotensin II receptor on the blood vessels that causes constriction and increase blood pressure. It also blocks the release of a hormone that causes salt retention and increased blood volume. 

Study shows Advair performs better than Singulair for asthma & allergic rhinitis

The results of a 660 subject study presented at the International Conference of the American Thoracic Society meeting in Toronto showed that asthma and allergic rhinitis patients responded better to Advair than Singulair.

The study included people aged 15 and over who suffered from both persistent asthma and seasonal allergies. Patients were given one of four different treatments: Singulair 10 mg once daily, Advair Diskus 100/50 twice daily, Advair 100/50 twice daily with Singulair 10 mg once daily or Advair 100/50 twice daily with fluticasone propionate nasal spray 200 mcg once daily.

The results of the study showed that patients who received only Advair experienced significant improvements in their morning peak expiratory flow which is a measure of asthma control, compared with Singulair alone (p<0.001).

Symptom free days and rescue treatment free days were also significantly increased in the Advair group compared with the Singulair group. However, the incidence of adverse events was similar among all groups.

The study was said to provide ”a greater understanding of how to treat patients with asthma and seasonal allergies, two diseases that often are seen in tandem,” according to Rohit Katial, MD, National Jewish Medical Research Center.

Advair in top 5 drugs bought in New York

New York’s largest health insurance company Excellus BlueCross BlueShield has produced a report that shows New Yorkers spent $5.5 billion dollars on prescription drugs in 2007. Though the list contained over 3000 prescription drugs, 20 percent of the total spend was taken up by just 10 brand name drugs.

Advair, used to treat asthma sufferers came in the top 5 of this list.

With medical bills rising rapidly it’s no secret that many people are switching to generic drugs. Advair for example is available as a generic called Fluticasone/Salmeterol and offers significant savings for patients who depend on the brand name drug Advair.

Whilst patients are thankful for the original manufacturer of the drug for helping them live a better quality of life, many patients simply can not afford to pay premium prices for drugs that are protected by patents such as Advair. The patent for Advair runs out in 2010 which should see FDA approved generics enter the market, but until this happens there are overseas pharmacies that stock generic Advair and ship internationally.

The reality of the pharmaceutical world unfortunately revolves around money and profits so it’s hard to see drug bills easing anytime in the near future.

Aricept to face competition from new Alzheimer’s patch

Aricept, the most widely used drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease is to face some stiff competition from a new player in the market.

Exelon, developed by pharmaceutical company Novartis is now available in a patch form which is claimed to offer various benefits over traditional pills such as Aricept.

The patch acts as a slow release medication, and side effects most commonly associated with Aricept such as nausea and vomiting were still possible but minimised with a skin patch approach. 

Experts were quick to point out that whilst the new Exelon patch would help a lot of sufferers of Alzheimer’s, it was still not a cure for the degenerative brain disorder which affects over 26 million people worldwide.

The main prescription drugs on the market to treat Alzheimer’s at the moment are Aricept, Exelon, Razadyne.

Triple the joy assisted by Clomid

On June 10th, Stephanie and Miguel Borges of Fairbanks Alaska welcomed 3 new additions to their family when Stephanie gave birth to triplets. Adding to the twin boys who turned 2 in March, the 5 kids in total are said to be doing well.

Stephanie was taking low dosages of the drug Clomid, which is used as a ovulatory stimulant. Clomid is often a popular choice of drug to help induce regular ovulation.

Having taken Clomid previously which resulted in her first pregnancy, twin boys, the prospect of another multiple birth was well on the table yet did not phase the now mother of 5.

The possibility of a multiple birth is listed as a side effect of Clomid, but one might argue that this isn’t a side effect at all!