Study touts Prilosec
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Results of a study show Procter & Gamble's Prilosec OTC proton-pump inhibitor is comparable in first-day effectiveness to Johnson & Johnson-Merck's histamine-2 receptor antagonist Pepcid AC, but J&J-Merck cites flaws in the P&G-funded study. The study, conducted by the Oklahoma Foundation for Digestive Research, compares the early therapeutic response for PPI (omeprazole) heartburn drugs and H2RAs (famotidine). Researchers, led by Philip Miner, M.D., a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Oklahoma, say they did not expect PPI to work as well as HR2As in the first 24 hours of treatment, but the two drugs showed similar levels of acid suppression during that time. Miner et al. note they did not measure symptom relief or the speed of onset of action, but say both types of drugs "owe their clinical efficacy to their ability to suppress gastric acid secretion." However, J&J-Merck says not measuring actual relief is among the study's flaws, and point out FDA does not accept acid-suppression studies as efficacy evidence...
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