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Sudafed Beats Singulair in Merck-Funded Allergy Study ; Patients Felt Better Using Pfizer Drug

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By KERRY YOUNG, BLOOMBERG NEWS

Allergy sufferers may get more relief from Pfizer Inc.'s Sudafed than from Merck & Co.'s Singulair, which requires a prescription and costs three times as much, according to a study that was intended to prove the reverse.

The 58-patient study found that people reported better relief of their stuffy noses with non-prescription Sudafed. University of Chicago physician Fuad Baroody said he obtained funding for the research from Merck so he could test his theory that Singulair would work better without the jitters associated with Sudafed.

A larger study would be needed for a definitive conclusion, Baroody said.

About 40 million people in the United States have allergies that cause sneezing, itchiness and congestion, according to the study report. Sales of Singulair, an asthma pill also approved to be marketed for allergies, rose 13 percent last year to $2.98 billion.

"It's a small study," Baroody said. "You can't generalize and say, 'Now all allergies should be treated with [Sudafed].' "

Drugstore.com Inc.'s Internet pharmacy sells a 10-pill lot of Sudafed for $7.99, or 79 cents a pill. The site sells 90 tablets of Singulair for $247.97, or $2.76 a pill. Pfizer said on Feb. 7 it may sell its consumer unit, which markets Sudafed.

Sudafed performed twice as well as Singulair in the study when the participants, who didn't know which drug they were taking, reported how much their nasal congestion eased. The drugs did equally well on a test using meters to measure how much air could pass through patients' noses.

The two drugs also worked about the same in treating sneezing, runny noses and itchy eyes and noses, the researchers said. That surprised the researchers because Sudafed is designed to ease congestion, Baroody said.

"They probably got relief with the congestion," he said, referring to people who took Sudafed. "They felt pretty comfortable, and that influenced the rest of their reporting favorably."

Singulair works by decreasing inflammation and Sudafed by shrinking blood vessels, Baroody said. Both drugs are intended to work on stuffed noses.

Nasal allergies are "all about having a chronic inflammatory state in your nose," he said. "Our thought was that Singulair would help with the sneezing and itching nose and would have a little edge."

The study also found no significant difference in side effects for the two drugs.

People taking Sudafed without a doctor's advice tend to go for multiple daily doses that can leave them jittery or with insomnia, Baroody said.

People with mild cases of allergies may want to try taking the once-daily version of Sudafed, as study participants did, he said. Stronger drugs are available if the symptoms persist.

"If they are still itching and sneezing, I would not be surprised," said Baroody in a telephone interview Monday. "They should seek help with a prescription."

Baroody's research appears in the February issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association's specialty publication for ear, nose and throat ailments, the Archives of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery.

Merck provided doses of Singulair and funding for the study, which cost about $20,000 to $30,000, Baroody said. The company didn't try to change the conclusions, he said.

Some of the findings had been included in a poster at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in San Antonio.

Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.

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