Losec Europe's Top-Selling Product

Astra's proton pump inhibitor product Losec (omeprazole) became Europe's largest-selling pharmaceutical product during 1994, with European sales of more than $1 billion and a 1.35% share of the European retail, institutional and over-the-counter market, according to figures just published by PMSI International. In the previous year, the product had represented 1.05% of the European market.

Losec has therefore displaced Glaxo's antiulcerant Zantac (ranitidine), which had dominated the European market since the late 1980s. PMSI estimates that Zantac held a 1.31% share of the total European market in 1994, compared with levels of 1.37% in 1993, 1.47% in 1992, 1.48% in 1991 and 1.53% in 1990.

Third on the best-seller list for 1994 is Merck & Co's ACE inhibitor Renitec (enalapril), which accounted for 0.74% of the European market in 1994, according to the data. This is close to the 0.75% level which it had held during 1989 and 1990 but which had then declined to 0.70% in 1993.