Change of Heart: SmithKline Beecham can run...

Change of Heart: SmithKline Beecham can run advertisements claiming that its over-the-counter heartburn medicine Tagamet HB controls stomach acid faster than rival Pepcid AC, a federal judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. in New York made the decision to lift an October court order that barred SmithKline from making the fast-action claim over Johnson & Johnson-Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co.’s Pepcid AC. Baer has been overseeing false-advertising lawsuits that the two drug makers filed against one another last year over statements about which medicine works faster, lasts longer, is preferred by doctors and has fewer side effects. Tagamet HB and Pepcid AC are nonprescription versions of the companies’ popular prescription ulcer medications. The drug makers are competing for an over-the-counter market of an estimated 61 million Americans who get heartburn each year.