US drug firms resist over the counter sales

British Medical Journal, May 26, 2001 by Fred Charatan

An advisory panel of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has voted overwhelmingly that three allergy remedies--loratadine, cetirizine, and fexofenadine--are safe enough to be bought at pharmacies and supermarkets without a doctor's prescription. But the manufacturers of the drugs, marketed in the United States as Claritin, Zyrtec, and Allegra, are resisting the idea.

Wellpoint Health Networks, a large Californian insurer, successfully argued before the FDA panel that all three drugs are safer than many of the other allergy drugs that are already sold over the counter.

Dr John Jenkins, director of the FDA office that evaluates anti-allergy drugs, said: "We have not identified any serious safety concerns with any of these drugs."

But the makers of the drugs argue that Wellpoint is trying to save money by shifting the cost from insurers to patients. Wellpoint has said that it would save $45m (32m [pounds sterling]) a year if the drugs were available over the counter.