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Merck stock breathing easy
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February 23, 1998: 12:22 p.m. ET
Shares rise after FDA approves marketing of one-a-day asthma pill
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Shares of Merck & Co. Inc. were higher Monday after the drug giant said the Food and Drug Administration has cleared for marketing its new once-a-day asthma pill, Singulair.
The non-steroid Singulair is in a class of drugs known as leukotriene blockers and is set to hit drugstore shelves next month.
Merck shares (MRK) got an injection from the announcement, adding 3 7/8 to 128 9/16 in midday trading Monday.
The announcement is a further boost to Merck stock following recent acquisition fever among drug stocks. Its share price has risen roughly 50 percent since last November.
The release of the new preventative therapy comes as the incidence of asthma is growing. Experts are divided over the reasons for the increasing incidence.
Currently, an estimated 15 million Americans -- 5 million of them children -- suffer from the respiratory disease.
Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck is expected to market a reduced-dose, cherry-flavored version of the pill for children over six years of age.
"There are a lot of asthma pills out there, but this may be the best one yet," said Hambrecht & Quist analyst Alex Zisson. "It has a benign side-effect profile and high efficiency."
But Singular, as a preventative therapy, won't mean an end to that ever-present playground buddy -- the asthma medicine inhaler -- Zisson said.
The new drug's accomplishment, he said, is that it is taken once a day, while others must be taken more often.
Meanwhile, rivals Glaxo Wellcome Inc. and Astra AB may soon receive U.S. approval for their dry-powder asthma inhalers already available in Europe. And new asthma medicine delivery devices are on the way as well.
The asthma drug market accounted for about $2 billion in sales in 1997.
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Merck
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