Friends, at the risk of sounding biased and defensive about a company and an industry my dh works for, I'd like to clarify a few things. Someone said, << It appears increasingly common for companies to "re-release" drugs under a new name in order to have a brand-name on the market. One nice example is fluoxetine. Those of us in the US know it as the brand name Prozac, manufactured by Dista Products. It has been out in generic form for quite a while. Eli/Lilly has released it under the name Sarafem as treatment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Same exact drug, new name.>> Dista which manufactures Prozac is an Eli Lilly company. The drug was created, patented and marketed by Lilly. It has been off-patent for 2-3 years or so. What that meant to this company is that it experienced a loss of revenue by millions of dollars a month in the space of about 2 months when the generics came out. That's a major blow to any company. Consider that they spent 10-15 years in development bringing the drug to market, then lost their profit from it just a relatively few years after it hit the market. Yes, it is common practice for drug companies that when one of their blockbuster drugs goes off-patent, they try to find ways to compensate, sometimes by marketing the drug for a different indication. However, they can only do this if the drug has been through clinical trials for that indication. As for Claritin, though it isn't a Lilly drug, I can imagine that someone who doesn't usually have problems with allergies might not know that hives are an allergic response and that, therefore, an antihistamine drug would help. Again, it would have to have been tested for specifically that indication for it to be marketed that way. Folks, not to get too off-topic here but can we stop denouncing pharmaceutical companies? Companies are in business to make money after all, and pharmaceutical companies are no different than any other. They have nothing to do with breastfeeding generally, unless they also produce infant formulas. *Those* are the tactics we should be discussing! BTW, this started as a discussion about why Domperidone will probably not be approved in the US. I hope you all have a better understanding of *why* now! This is just an editorial comment and somewhat OT, so I'd better stop before the listmommies get out the ruler! ;-) Marsha, who is thankful for Prozac which I credit with saving my marriage! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Marsha Glass RN, BSN, IBCLC~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations as all other earthly causes combined. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~John S. C. Abbot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html