Word: tagamet
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...boasts continue: "It helps block production of stomach acid." "It's the world's first acid blocker." Then, against the glowing corona of a totally eclipsed sun, "And now it's available without a prescription." Finally the eclipsed image resolves into the illustration on a drug package labeled Tagamet HB, under which is inscribed, "Now for heartburn...
This rousing commercial, Tagamet's first, and others saturating the networks are the opening guns in what promises to be an unprecedented war for the minds of heartburn sufferers. The combatants are pharmaceutical companies jockeying for position in a new, lucrative over-the-counter market for drugs that provide long-lasting relief from heartburn, a condition that at least occasionally affects as many as one-fifth of all Americans. Their weapons, in addition to TV commercials, include a plethora of print advertisements--as well as suits and countersuits in the courts. Their goal: to capture the largest possible share...
That is why, beginning in the late 1970s, pharmaceutical companies started offering such new drugs as Zantac, Tagamet, Pepcid and Axid, available only by prescription for those with serious heartburn or ulcers. While these brands took as long as an hour to kick in, they actually blocked the production of stomach acids and could protect against heartburn for as long as 12 hours. Despite their prescription-only status, these drugs quickly won favor, and today account for $3.7 billion annually in U.S. sales...
...blockers. At stake as the companies tout these products, say industry analysts, is an additional $1 billion in sales for heartburn medications. "This is a blockbuster," says Paul Kelly, president of Silvermine Consulting Group, in Westport, Connecticut. "It's the most dramatic medical launch since Advil." Two acid blockers, Tagamet HB and Pepcid AC, have begun battling it out for market share, and two more--including the British colossus Zantac in over-the-counter form--will be joining the fray by next year...
Introduced in the U.S. by SmithKline Beecham in 1977 and under patent protection for 17 years, Tagamet was the pioneer acid blocker. Worldwide it has earned the company a total of $14 billion and was the first drug ever to chalk up $1 billion in sales in a single year. But in the late 1980s, anticipating the worst when its Tagamet patent ran out in 1994, SmithKline began conducting clinical trials and seeking FDA approval of an over-the-counter version. The wisdom of that decision became evident when Tagamet sales plummeted from $600 million in 1993 to only...