METH INGREDIENT REMOVED

Sudafed's Timing Draws Fire

Chattanooga --- Tennessee officials are asking why it took so long for
Pfizer Inc. to release an alternative decongestant without the ingredient
used to make methamphetamine.

Pseudoephedrine, an active ingredient in Pfizer's Sudafed and Actifed,
Schering Plough's Claritin-D and other remedies, can also be used to make
methamphetamine in homemade labs.

Pfizer's alternative decongestant, Sudafed PE, contains phenylephrine,
which can't be converted into meth. It has been in some Pfizer products
sold in Europe since 2003, said company spokeswoman Erica Johnson.

Sudafed PE will go on sale in the United States in February, and the
company will promote it as an alternative to pseudoephedrine products
associated with illegal meth-making, Johnson said.

"Original Sudafed will still be available, but where sales of
pseudoephedrine are restricted or placed 'behind the counter,' Sudafed PE
will provide consumers with a convenient 'on the shelf' decongestant,"
Pfizer Vice President Jay Kominsky wrote in a letter to some government and
law enforcement officials.

In Tennessee --- where meth abuse has taken root and ravaged rural
communities --- officials are asking why it took so long.

"We have a lot of questions about why this product was not introduced
sooner in Tennessee and look forward to hearing the reasons why," said Will
Pinkston, an aide to Gov. Phil Bredesen.

Johnson declined to comment on the timing of Sudafed PE's arrival in
American stores.

Some officials said it's connected to a push to put Sudafed and other
tablets with pseudoephedrine behind pharmacy counters.

Oklahoma took that approach, and it saw meth lab seizures fall more than 80
percent in less than a year.

Bredesen has said that he would like a similar law in Tennessee, which
leads the nation in meth lab seizures and accounts for three-quarters of
such busts in the South.

Between October 2003 and August 2004, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration busted about 1,200 clandestine meth labs in the state, a
nearly 400 percent increase from 2000. Also, Tennessee removed an estimated
750 children from the custody of meth abusers last year, up from 2003.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Laymon of Chattanooga, who prosecutes
methamphetamine abusers, said the timing of Sudafed PE "raises a whole host
of questions as to why the pharmaceutical companies didn't move on this sooner.

"It seems fairly clear that Sudafed as a brand is a cash cow for Pfizer,"
Laymon said. "I could understand why they would want to protect their
flagship brand. Are their decisions motivated by profit? It would seem
pretty obvious that it is."

Laymon said he hoped the arrival of Sudafed PE does not sway lawmakers from
restricting pseudoephedrine.

"I would not like to see a company like Pfizer say to a state like
Tennessee, 'Don't pass this legislation because we are going to take care
of this issue.' "

Tom Farmer, a Hamilton County narcotics officer who works with a regional
meth task force in East Tennessee, said pharmaceutical companies have known
that pseudoephedrine was being abused.

"I find it odd that all of a sudden now they are going to do this. I think
it is great but why are they trying to do it now?"

A co-sponsor of Oklahoma's law, state Sen. Kenneth Corn (D-Poteau), said
drug companies using pseudoephedrine "told us they were working on things
but they didn't give us anything specific."

Johnson said Pfizer failed in an attempt to develop a pseudoephedrine
tablet that would not allow people to remove an oxygen molecule to make
methamphetamine.

"Once we realized the locked formula was not going to work, we developed .
. . Sudafed PE," she said.

Johnson said she didn't know if other drug companies planned to release an
alternative to pseudoephedrine.

"We hope that others certainly will follow suit," she said.