Panel Backs Over-the-Counter Prilosec.
Heartburn Medication May Soon Be Sold Without Prescription
June 27, 2002 -- The first drug of its class may soon join the ranks of other over-the-counter heartburn medications lining drug store shelves. An FDA advisory panel has now recommended that the popular drug Prilosec be made available without a doctor's prescription.
If approved for nonprescription use, Prilosec is expected to have a major impact on the billion-dollar over-the-counter heartburn medicine market currently dominated by antacids such as Tums and Rolaids and acid reducers such as Pepcid, Tagamet, and Zantac.
The panel recommended that Prilosec be approved only for treating heartburn that occurs two or more days a week and not for treating occasional stomach problems that are often caused by eating too much pizza or spicy food.
The FDA is not required to follow the panel's recommendation, but it usually does. An official ruling from the agency is expected by the end of summer.
Produced by drugmaker AstraZeneca, Prilosec is one of the most popular and profitable prescription drugs in the world, racking up $6 billion in sales in the year 2000. AstraZeneca has sold the rights to a nonprescription version of the drug, to be sold under the name Prilosec 1, to Procter & Gamble.
If approved for over-the-counter use, the cost of the drug is also expected to drop from about $4 a day to $1 a day in the nonprescription form.
Greg Allgood, PhD, associate director of the Procter & Gamble Health Sciences Institute, says about 40 million Americans experience heartburn at least twice a week and would benefit from the new over-the-counter version of Prilosec.
"They're going to be better off because the drug is more effective than what they're using now," Allgood tells WebMD. Allgood says Prilosec 1 would be the only over-the-counter heartburn medication on the market that has been proven to prevent chronic heartburn before it starts.
Antacids such as Tums and Rolaids work to neutralize heartburn-related acids after symptoms begin to provide relief. And histamine blockers such as Pepcid, Zantac, and Tagamet are designed to manage sudden episodes of heartburn when taken at certain times, such as before or after spicy meals.