Will Prilosec’s Bad New Hurt Procter & Gamble?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 8:03AM EST · Published May 15, 9:00AM EDT

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Will Prilosec’s Bad New Hurt Procter & Gamble? — © Thinkstock

The heartburn drug Prilosec got a damaging blow when a study in Circulation Research showed that the class of drugs called proton pump inhibitors (PPI), the class of drugs which includes Prilosec may lead to blood circulation problems. Prilosec is one of the best selling drugs made by The Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG), so its has to be bad news for the consumer products company.

Fox News reported:

Vascular cells chronically exposed in vitro to PPIs led to a buildup of cellular garbage in cellular linings, thus accelerating blood vessel aging.

The results of this are potentially blood circulation disease, kidney problems and dementia, all among the diseases which most plague older Americans.

Fox added:

An estimated one in 14 Americans uses an over-the-counter PPI like omeprazole, sold as Prilosec, to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), also called heartburn or acid reflux. Considered the most effective treatment for GERD, PPIs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use four weeks at a time, but research suggests up to 70 percent of PPI use may be inappropriate.

One of the examples of the massive Procter & Gamble commitment to the drug is a series of expensive ads which are “hosted” by Larry the Cable guy. The message:

When you eat, millions of tiny pumps in your stomach lining create acid to break down food. When your LES (lower esophageal sphincter) relaxes, excess acids can flow up, or reflux, into your esophagus. This can create the painful sensation of heartburn.

Prilosec OTC works by directly blocking many of the active stomach pumps that produce acid before they start. Prilosec OTC is a proton pump inhibitor (PPI). The way the active ingredient in Prilosec OTC works to fight heartburn sets it in a whole separate class from other treatments such as histamine blockers or antacids

Nice cure, until it makes you much sicker.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.