Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8409
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
 
Publication type: news
Pettypiece S.
Lilly Drug, Form of Prozac, Approved for Anxious Dogs
Bloomberg.com 2007 Feb 9
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aPlvXhnbis6I&refer=healthcar
Full text:
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — A variation on Eli Lilly & Co.‘s depression pill Prozac can now be used to help dogs cope with the anxiety of being separated from their owners.
The product, to be sold under the name Reconcile, is designed to help quell panic attacks and bad behavior that separation anxiety can cause. The chewable drug should be used in conjunction with behavior modification, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said today in a notice on the agency’s Web site.
Reconcile would compete with Novartis AG’s Clomicalm, approved in 1999. The FDA last month cleared the first prescription weight-loss drug for dogs, Pfizer Inc.‘s Slentrol. There are about 61.5 million pet dogs in the U.S., according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, based in Schaumburg, Illinois.
Dogs suffering from separation anxiety may ``go into a funk’‘ or have a panic attack, said Nicholas Dodman, who directs the animal behavior clinic at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, in Grafton, Massachusetts, in an interview last month.
Dogs on the drug should also receive behavior counseling, such as rewards for good behavior and training to be content alone, according to the drug’s prescribing information.
Shares of Lilly, based in Indianapolis, rose 2 cents to $54.23 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
To contact the reporter on this story: Shannon Pettypiece in Washington at spettypiece@bloomberg.net .