41.   A medical insurance company is breaking new ground by petitioning the government to force three popular allergy prescription drugs to be sold over the counter.

42.   A petition to allow three popular prescription allergy drugs to be sold over the counter has triggered a battle between health insurers and pharmaceutical companies.

43.   As a senator representing New Jersey, Democrat Robert Torricelli proposed helping a home-state pharmaceutical company extend its patent on the allergy drug Claritin.

44.   Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc. has filed a patent infringement suit against Impax Laboratories Inc. over Allegra-D, one of the medicines in its popular family of allergy drugs.

45.   Aventis SA said the move would allow it to focus on its pharmaceuticals, which include the allergy drug Allegra.

46.   Claritin, the most heavily advertised prescription drug to consumers, has been the leading allergy drug for several years.

47.   Manufacturers of the drugs opposed the action, claiming that unsupervised sales of the allergy drugs posed a health risk for some patients.

48.   Meanwhile, a decision on a new Pfizer allergy drug is five months overdue.

49.   Salomon Smith Barney downgraded the Madison, N.J.-based drugmaker because of concerns the company faces patent problems with its allergy drug Claritin.

50.   Schering-Plough Corp., for example, has been lobbying House and Senate judiciary members to extend its patent for the allergy drug Claritin.