I'm looking for a list and description (manufacturer, disease, sales
figures, etc.) of marketed (in U.S. and/or Europe) prescription
pharmaceutical products.  These would be products to treat
women-specific issues, such as infertility, female sexual dysfunction,
interstitial cystitis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, birth control, and
many other women specific diseases.  I am looking only for
prescription pharmaceuticals alreay approved in either the U.S. or
Europe, who makes them, what kind of dollar sales they product, what
the disease indications are, when approved, etc.  Ideally, these would
be products which are primarily prescribed by ob/gyn's
(obstetrician/gynecologists).  Is Google Answers well-equipped for
this type of question?

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 20 Jul 2005 19:56 PDT

pharmafinder-ga,

I've been giving some thought to your challenging -- and interesting -- question.

Please have a look at the list of medications at this site:


http://www.hap.org/info/formulary/formularyc11.php


These are certainly women's health prescription meds, and the emphasis
is on Ob/Gyn medicines.

If this seems a good list, please let me know, and I'll see what sort
of information I can work up on sales, conditions, manufacturers and
so on.

And if it's NOT a good list, let me know in what way it falls short for your needs.


You asked if Google Answers is well-equipped for your sort of
question, and I'll answer that with a qualified "yes".  We do have the
resources and expertise to provide the sort of information you're
looking for.

I suppose the major limitation is that question fees max out at $200,
which places a limit on just how much time and effort a researcher can
apply to a given question.

However, it is always possible to post multiple questions if you find
you need more information than can be provided in a single
run-through.

I look forward to hearing back from you on this.


pafalafa-ga

---

Clarification of Question by pharmafinder-ga on 20 Jul 2005 20:35 PDT

Thanks for getting back to me, I really appreciate it.  Yes, what you
have produced is a useful start.  To give you more context, I am the
CEO and founder of a women's health pharmaceutical startup, and I'm
looking to in-license some marketed products, and I'm trying to learn
the landscape of products out there.

pharmafinder-ga,


This one has been a challenge!

I've consolidated here a good deal of information on what might be
called "women's drugs".

Of course, this is a very large topic, and is certainly not limited to
ob/gyn type drugs.

But to get the ball rolling, I've concentrated my efforts on the
ob/gyn 'formulary' that I referenced earlier at:


http://www.hap.org/info/formulary/formularyc11.php


and I've also taken a look at what are generally known as the
'blockbuster' drugs -- the largest sellers in the market -- to see
which of the ob/gyn drugs fall into this category, and what other
women's drugs are worth taking note of.


Two caveats, if I may:

--One, I am not a medical or drug market expert, so please recognize
the disclaimer at the bottom of the page regarding the appropriate use
and limits of Google Answers.

--Two, there are many drug names that I simply do not recognize, so in
scanning the many lists of top selling drugs, I may have overlooked
some that should be included as women's drugs.

Nonetheless, I think we're off to a good start with the following information:




At the following site:


http://www.contractpharma.com/top_comp.php


is a list of the top drug companies in the world.  

Clicking on an individual company brings up a very useful profile on
each company, along with a list of their bigeest-selling (blockbuster)
drugs.


I reviewed these lists for women's drugs, and identified the
following, listed as drug brand name, sales in billions, condition for
which the drug is used, and manufacturer:


Fosamax $2.7   postmenopausal osteoporosis   Merck

Taxotere $1.5 cancer, especially breast cancer  Aventis

Taxol   $0.9  cancer   Bristol-Myers Squibb

Paraplatin  $0.9  ovarian cancer  Bristol-Myers Squibb

Herceptin  $0.9  breast cancer  Hoffman-La Roche

Evista  $0.9  postmenopausal  osteoporosis  Eli Lilly

Premarin $1.2  hormone replacement therapy   Wyeth

Yasmin  $0.3 fertility control  Schering AG

Diane  $0.2 gynecology  Schering AG

Herceptin  $0.4  breast cancer  Genentech

Gonal-F  $0.5  infertility  Serono



===============



At this site:


http://www.drugtopics.com/drugtopics/article/articleList.jsp?categoryId=7604


you will find numerous lists of top-selling drugs.


These lists are very useful, but can also be daunting, as they present
available information in a number of different ways.  The key things
to be aware of are that the lists differ for brand name drugs, and
generic drugs, and that some lists are ranked by sales in dollars,
while others are ranked by numbers of prescriptions issued.


I cross-checked these lists against the list of ob/gyn formulary
drugs, and also scanned them for other drugs that seem to belong to
the category of women's drugs.  I found the following:






http://www.drugtopics.com/drugtopics/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=150644
TOP 200 BRAND-NAME DRUGS BY RETAIL DOLLARS IN 2004
[rank by sales, drug brand name, and sales in thousands of dollars]
[drug uses are given on the ob/gyn formulary page]


49 Premarin Tabs 702,872

187 Prempro 137,847

101 Diflucan 312,619




http://www.drugtopics.com/drugtopics/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=150068
TOP 200 BRAND-NAME DRUGS BY UNITS IN 2004
[rank by # of prescriptions sold, brand name, thousands of prescriptions]


165 MetroGel-Vaginal 1,799
(vaginal infections)

119 Low-Ogestrel 2,840
(emergency contraception)

177 Estrostep Fe 1,624
(contraceptive)


184 Depo-Provera 1,600





http://www.drugtopics.com/drugtopics/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=150656
TOP 200 GENERIC DRUGS BY RETAIL DOLLARS IN 2004



110 Estradiol Oral 69,258
(postmenopausal symptoms)

137 Megestrol Oral Susp 48,725
(breast cancer)

142 Megestrol Tabs 45,850
(breast cancer)

32 Clindamycin Systemic 221,609

101 Clindamycin Topical 83,621

67 Clotrimazl/Betamthsn 122,605

107 Fluconazole 78,762

105 Nystatin Systemic 80,498



===============


You might want to explore the link below for information on other
possible women's drugs.  While the list is not perfect in this regard,
I have constructed the search to focus most of the results on drugs
that are primarily used in the context of women's medicine:



://www.google.com/search?q=inurl:rxlist+inurl:generic+women+indications+usage&num=100&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&safe=off&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-20,GGLG:en&filter=0



The results are all from a site, RxList, which I have found to be very
professional, and a source of reliable information.



I trust this information fully answers your question.  However, please
don't rate this answer until you have everything you need.

This is a complex area, there are thousands of drugs and thousands of
medical conditions out there, and I have organized the available
information in the best way I could think of.


However, if you would like any additional information, just post a
Request for Clarification to let me know how I can assist you further,
and I'm at your service.

All the best,

pafalafa-ga



search strategy:  Mostly used bookmarked sites for drugs and medical
information.  Also searched on individual drug names to confirm their
status as primarily women's drugs.

---

Clarification of Answer by pafalafa-ga on 23 Jul 2005 17:21 PDT

I forget that the venerable Physician's Desk Reference makes some of
its information available online (without a subscription) at the
following site:



http://www.pdrhealth.com/

  

PDR isn't going to give you market or sales information, but it's a
great source for just about everything else.  Since the site can be
accessed by disease or condition, it's relatively easy to pull up
information on conditions specific to -- or of particular concern to
-- women.


From the main page, clicking on "Disease Overviews" takes you to:


http://www.pdrhealth.com/disease_states/index.html


and selecting "OB/GYN Disorders" then leads to:


http://www.pdrhealth.com/disease_states/obgyn.shtml



Where there are a host of sub-links to choose from.  I started with
"OB/GYN Disorders: Causes & Treatments":


http://www.pdrhealth.com/content/rx_drugs/chapters/fgrx10.shtml



has a section on "When Medication Is Needed" which lists broad
categories (and some specific medicines) common to ob/gyns:

Antibiotics

Hormonal therapy 

Diuretics

Fluoxetine 

Antiprostaglandins

Antifungal medication 

Acyclovir

famciclovir 

valacyclovir 

Flavoxate

tolterodine 

Fertility drugs 

Anticancer drugs 




Or, clicking on the section for "Curing Vaginal Infections" provides a
more detailed list of medicines commonly used:



http://www.pdrhealth.com/content/women_health/chapters/fgwh04.shtml
Yeast Infections: Your Treatment Alternatives


Femstat 3

Diflucan 

Gyne-Lotrimin

Monistat

Mycelex-G

Mycelex-7

Nizoral 

Nystatin 

Terazol 

Boric Acid




This is a rich resource -- even without market information --  and I
wanted to make sure you were aware of it, in addition to the
information I provided earlier.


pafalafa-ga