Allergy Drug May Deliver More Relief

A look-alike antihistamine newly approved by the Food and Drug Administration could offer some allergy sufferers more relief . . . by giving them less.

Xyzal, a Zyrtec cousin approved six months before the older drug is due to go off patent, contains only Zyrtec's active molecule; the inactive molecules were left out. "Studies on other drugs seem to show that having only the active molecule can make a medicine more effective," said Michael Blaiss, a professor of medicine at the University of Tennessee.

Xyzal, which has been approved in several European countries, is the product of two drug companies: UCB of Belgium (which developed Zyrtec for Pfizer years ago) and Sanofi Aventis SA of France.

Better symptom relief would be welcome, said Blaiss, who was paid by UCB to comment on the new prescription drug. In "Allergies in America," a study published last year, 60 percent of allergy patients surveyed said they got insufficient symptom relief from their allergy medications.

In one small European study, patients taking Xyzal got relief one hour after taking the drug, on average, while those taking Clarinex, the prescription cousin of Claritin, needed three. Like Zyrtec, Xyzal can cause sleepiness.

The drug should be available (by prescription) in time for the fall allergy season, says UCB spokesman Andrea Levin. The company plans to price it competitively with Zyrtec and Clarinex -- meaning, according to prices posted at Drugstore.com, that it should cost between $2.40 and $3 per pill.

John Malley, a pharmacy benefits consultant with Watson Wyatt, a health-care consulting firm, said he expects some insurers to cover the drug. Zyrtec, which had sales of more than $1.5 billion last year, is expected to become a nonprescription drug soon after its patent has expired.

-- Francesca Lunzer Kritz