MERRELL DOW's SELDANE U.S. RETAIL SALES ANNUALIZING AT OVER $120 MIL

MERRELL DOW's SELDANE U.S. RETAIL SALES ANNUALIZING AT OVER $120 MIL. (at pharmacy acquisition cost), based on January-July retail sales figures reported in Pharmaceutical Data Services' (PDS) most recent AlphaGram. Entering its third year of marketing, Seldane "continues its tremendous growth while dominating the single entity prescription antihistamine U.S. retail market," PDS commented. The pharmaceutical auditing service estimates that January to July sales for the Rx nonsedating antihistamine Seldane (terfenadine) were $71 mil., a 44% gain over the $49 mil. in sales generated by the product during the comparable 1986 period. However, PDS noted that Seldane's "dominant position could be threatened upon approval of Janssen's Hismanal (astemizole), which currently has an NDA pending." An NDA for Schering-Plough's loratidine is also pending approval at FDA. Other nonsedating antihistamine products in the R&D pipeline include Burroughs Wellcome's acrivastine (Phase III clinical studies), Pfizer's certirizine (Phase III studies), and SmithKline's temelastine (Phase II studies). Based on PDS data, Seldane was the top new Rx retail product in 1985 following its launch in May of that year. At the end of 1985, PDS audit data showed retail sales of the nonsedating antihistamine annualizing at about $50 mil. Even if Seldane U.S. sales were to level off during the next five months, they would still be roughly 33% over 1986 sales figures. Last year, sales of Seldane in the U.S. topped $90 mil., according to Merrell Dow.