Going up, up, up is……Merck’s Januvia diabetes pill.

New scrips rose 4.7 percent and total scrips jumped 5 percent for the week ending Jan. 26, according to Rodman & Renshaw analyst Mike King, citing weekly IMS Health data, in a research note this morning. Moreover, Januvia’s share of new scrips in the oral diabetes market is now 7 percent, while the share of total scrips stood at 3.7 percent.

Of course, this could change soon if Novartis gets FDA approval for Galvus.

Meanwhile, going downhill is Pfizer’s Exubera. New scrips declined by 6.8 percent and total scrips fell 8 percent during the same week. Pfizer better start that promised ad campaign soon if it wants to salvage this thing. The drugmaker’s own sales reps were complaining on CafePharma recently that they can’t meet their quotas because docs don’t want to prescibe the gizmo.

[tags]Exubera, Galvus, IMS Health, Januvia, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer[/tags]