Prilosec OTC Launch Set Next Week Despite Lawsuit
The over-the-counter market for heartburn medicines in the United States is more than $1 billion, Johnson & Johnson-Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co, said in the lawsuit.
P&G has said it expects sales of Prilosec OTC to be $200 million to $400 million in the first year.
Johnson & Jonson-Merck, maker of competing over-the-counter heartburn drugs Pepcid AC and Mylanta, filed the federal lawsuit earlier this week in New York, charging that PPG's advertising improperly says that Prilosec eliminates heartburn for 24 hours with a single pill.
In fact, Prilosec OTC is for frequent heartburn and must be used every day for 14 days. It can take up to four days to actually take full effect, the lawsuit, said. Johnson & Johnson-Merck is a joint venture between drugmakers Merck & Co. Inc. and Johnson & Johnson. Cincinnati-based P&G, which is spending more than $100 million to advertise and promote Prilosec, is using the slogan "one pill, 24 hours, zero heartburn" to promote the drug. The ads also have a footnote saying "taken as directed for 14 days."
"The product is not approved, and is not effective, for use on an intermittent or single tablet basis," Reuters quoted the lawsuit as saying.
But P&G studies showed that 47 to 50 percent of users experienced no heartburn in the first 24 hours using Prilosec OTC, said Greg Allgood, associate director of the P&G health sciences institute.
"Our claims are absolutely true and consistent with the labeling which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved for this new over-the-counter medicine," Joe Arcuri, general of P&G's North America Personal Health Care business, said in a statement.
Johnson & Johnson Merck is asking a judge to order P&G to stop what it claims is the false advertising and to award monetary damages caused by the advertising, among other actions.
P&G sells the drug under a license from its creator, AstraZenecaPlc .