ZOTON OFFERS BENEFITS OVER H2S & OMEPRAZOLE

Zoton (lansoprazole) offers effective treatment for acid-related disorders such as reflux esophagitis and duodenal ulcer, and provides significant advantages over existing therapies such as H2 anatgonists or omeprazole (Astra's Losec), said Paul Vaughn-Griffiths, chief executive at Lederle, speaking at the UK launch of the drug earlier this month.

Michael Lancaster-Smith, consultant gastroenterologist at St Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, UK, emphasized that Zoton offered faster healing of duodenal ulcer than omeprazole. He presented a comparative, double-blind, randomized trial with omeprazole in duodenal ulcer. 73 patients received 30mg of Zoton daily and 71 patients received 20mg of omeprazole daily for four weeks.

All the results were endoscopically confirmed, said Mr Lancaster-Smith. At two weeks, 74% of the patients in the Zoton group had been healed compared with 58% in the omeprazole group. At four weeks, both groups showed a healing rate of 94%. He noted that although both groups achieved a similar healing rate at four weeks, Zoton offers both cost and clinical advantages over omeprazole with its faster healing time.