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More Warnings Needed on Reglan Side Effects

More Warnings Needed on Reglan Side Effects (cont.)

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by Evelyn Pringle
May 27, 2010

Huge Customer Base
Over four million women give birth each year in the US, according to the CDC.  The study reported that between 50% and 80% of pregnant women get morning sickness. Those numbers translate into between 2 and 3.2 million new Relgan customers in the US alone, year in and year out.

The women in the NEJM study took three 10mg tablets per day. The current price of Reglan at DrugStore.com is $182 for 100 tablets. Each pregnant woman could buy 2 or 3 months of Reglan for the first trimester, plus the study notes that nausea and vomiting "can continue beyond the first trimester." Two months of the drug at a cost of $364, times 2.5 million women, could potentially ring up $910 million each year.

Successful campaign
It sounds like the study's kick-off will definitely boost sales. "I think that women will be comforted by this," Dr Keith Eddleman, director of obstetrics at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, told Johnson in an AP article. "Most women are reluctant (to take anti-nausea medicine) just because of the stories they've heard and the perception that taking something in the first trimester can cause harm."

"There are very few drugs approved for use in the first trimester of pregnancy," Dr Jennifer Niebyl, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Iowa, told Time Magazine on June 10, 2009.

"But this study could lead to metoclopramide getting approved to treat morning sickness because this is good data with big numbers," she said. "These findings may change practice and help people to be less hesitant to use the drug."

Dr Laura Riley, a Massachusetts General Hospital obstetrician and spokeswoman for the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine, told Johnson women are far more cautious than doctors about medication. "For some who are on the fence, it'll allow them to take it."

The chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at St John's Health Center in Santa Monica, Dr James Moran, told the LA Times that he thinks the findings should be replicated but that he "wouldn't hesitate to use Reglan at all."

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