Perhaps a small matter, but I wonder whether an over the counter consumer should really care whether the product benefits from "dual ingredient" patents.
Afterall, the patent simply means no one else does it -- not that it relieves heartburn more effectively (or at all!), compared to the competitors' presumably non-patented formulations.
Yet, the headline of the press release, out of Whitehouse Station overnight blares "only patented dual relief" is available from Zegerid OTCTM, and the body offers this:
. . . .Zegerid OTCTM has a patented dual-ingredient formula that combines omeprazole, the leading prescription acid-reducing medicine, and sodium bicarbonate, which protects the omeprazole in this product from acid in the stomach and allows it to be absorbed. . . .
What this all boils down to is that other brands use enteric coating -- while Zegerid's formulation obviates that coating. Not a huge deal.
Of course, there is no data -- and thus no claim by Merck -- that would suggest the enteric coating is in any way a disadvantage, in the competitors' products.
I guess Consumer OTC Health is more like selling floor wax, than actual medicines.
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no post on the pfizer/pharmacia story reported today on CNN?
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/02/pfizer.bextra/index.html?hpt=T2
Great find! I just read it now.
And, while I'll likely watch Saturday at 3 pm EDT, to see if anything new is actually disclosed -- it looks to me as though almost every bit of the CNN story appeared in the Washington Post story, last month -- (I wrote at length on it, here) -- also much of the same narrative was published in The New York Times, a few weeks before that.
I think CNN is largely rehashing the work of others, here.
Nonetheless, it should be seen.
Thanks and Namaste!
Now its own story -- see above!
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Is the consumer business going to be sold entirely, sold in pieces, spun off, or left alone?
No way to know, Anon., at this point.
It is going to need "a partner" accoring to CEO Clark.
But that's about all that's been officialy said on the topic (a scant bit, I know).
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