RxTrials Institute Drug Pipeline Alert

And Thus it Begins: Xyzal (On the Pharm)
In his blog, the author discusses Xyzal, a sanofi-aventis/UCB allergy drug that recently went on the market. The author writes that tests will be conducted to prove Xyzal is a good drug. He believes the trials are a waste of money as Xyzal is almost the same drug as Zyrtec, a drug whose patent is set to expire.

“Here’s the bottom line: everything that Zyrtec works for, Xyzal will work for, and vice versa. Same side effects, too. And because this is so, you will never see a head-to-head study comparing Xyzal with Zyrtec, because the results will prove that it’s just a waste of money. Like Clarinex. Oh sure, there will be a few isolated cases where Xyzal is 0.5 [percent] better for 0.1 [percent] of the study population, and these studies will be trumpeted, but remember that they’re actually meaningless. You’ll also see studies that show Xyzal is effective for some obscure condition that Zyrtec was never studied for. Just remember that this is done to make Xyzal seem like something more than a me-too drug, and that if someone bothered to spend the money, Zyrtec would work just as well,” the author concludes.