Patients covered by Wellpoint will have no problem getting Singulair for mild, persistent asthma.
For asthma, Singulair has been used safely in kids as young as two years old.
Last year's loss of patent protection for asthma treatment Singulair continued to pressure sales.
But Singulair works by a different mechanism, so it might help patients for whom antihistamines don't work.
Merck's other blockbusters, such as Fosamax for osteoporosis and Singulair for asthma and allergies, continue to perform well.
Plavix and Singulair both go off patent over the next couple years, ending the age of mass-market medicines completely.
The advantage for Singulair is that unlike older drugs like antihistamines, it works by blocking a completely different molecule.
Marketed drugs such as Singulair only target some types of leukotrienes and may not hit the ones involved in heart disease.
Eli Meltzer , an allergist at the University of California at San Diego, led the clinical trials that tested Singulair against allergy symptoms.
In particular, Meltzer says, a leukotriene inhibitor like Singulair could be far better at treating nasal congestion than an antihistamine like Claritin or Zyrtec.
But analysts have argued that Singulair is unproven in the allergy market and that it takes longer than Merck is expecting to build a hypertension drug.
If U.S. Zocor sales remain flat or decline only slightly, it will be much easier for earnings to grow on the backs of Cozaar, Singulair and Fosamax.
Meanwhile, Dr. Allayee at USC plans to begin a 200-patient clinical trial testing whether leukotriene blockers like Singulair can prevent atherosclerosis in high-risk patients, as soon as he can obtain government funding.
Bernstein, a pharmaceutical analyst who had been one of the doubters, wrote in a note to investors this morning that Singulair is beating his expectations and is in line with the Whitehouse Station, N.
Several leukotriene-blocking drugs, including Singulair from Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ) and Accolate from AstraZeneca (nyse: AZN - news - people ), are currently on the market for asthma.
Genentech and Novartis initially plan to aim Xolair at 500, 000 or so moderate-to-severe asthmatics whose condition isn't controlled even with high doses of existing drugs, such as GlaxoSmithKline 's (nyse: GSK - news - people ) inhaled steroid Flovent or Merck 's (nyse: MRK - news - people ) Singulair, a so-called leukotriene inhibitor.
Although the Food and Drug Administration recently did approve Singulair as an allergy pill, the drug must still compete with prescription medicines from Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ) and Aventis (nyse: AVE - news - people ), as well as what could be a slew of cheap, generic over-the-counter versions of Schering-Plough 's (nyse: SGP - news - people ) Claritin.
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