Generic Lipitor

[rosebud5]

Maybe this is old news, but I understand generic Lipitor is coming out this month? Was a $12B industry. I'm going to switch and save myself $500 buckaroos a year.

 

[JeffW]

According to this link (from 3 years ago!), it's later this month:

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/06/18/countdown-to-expiry-lipitor-goes-generic-on-113011/

Jeff

 

[sdbrier]

The best generic lipitor is a Garlic tablet! No side effects, available most anywhere. and gives good results. My wife is living proof.:whoopie:

 

[rosebud5]

Yeah but.. how's the smell?

 

[SDKath]

ROFL! So thrilled to see this drug go generic. Oftentimes, the insurance companies will not honor the typical generic co-pays for 6-9 months though, so don't be surprised if you are still really paying a lot for it for a while.

I guess it's a supply and demand thing. Lots of people want it and only 1 company gets the generic manufacturing permission initially. Happened with Norvasc for a while. THen things calmed down.

Diovan is going generic next Spring. That's a great BP drug. Should be awesome savings for lots and lots of people.

K

 

[bogey21]

Manufacturer of Lipitor is trying to get it approved as a non-prescription item. I guess they want it to sell as a commodity like Benadryl, Nyquil, etc. Makes sense for them. Lose the patent then sell it under the Lipitor name as a commodity without prescription.

George

PS I just had a prescription eye drop, Xalatan lose its patent protection. My insurance covered the generic version, Latanoprost within days at a big league savings for me.

 

[SDKath]

Manufacturer of Lipitor is trying to get it approved as a non-prescription item. I guess they want it to sell as a commodity like Benadryl, Nyquil, etc. Makes sense for them. Lose the patent then sell it under the Lipitor name as a commodity without prescription.

George

PS I just had a prescription eye drop, Xalatan lose its patent protection. My insurance covered the generic version, Latanoprost within days at a big league savings for me.

I don't think statins will ever be OTC. It has too many potential side effects AND it requires blood testing every 6 months.

 

[Conan]

Their patent expires at the end of the month, so after that there will be true generic alternatives, by prescription but a lot cheaper.

After Patent Expires, Pfizer Staying with Lipitor
Nov. 2, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires reporter Peter Loftus has details of Pfizer's decision to aggressively market branded cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor after the patent expires at the end of November
http://www.marketwatch.com/video/as...CBFD3B9#!D1D968EE-C7A7-4B80-BA87-0BC78CBFD3B9

Even now, if you're under 65 (i.e. not on Medicare) you can get a card here that reduces your co-pay to $4.00
https://www.lipitor.com/patients/LipitorCoPayCardRegistration.aspx

 

[sdbrier]

Yeah but.. how's the smell?

Honestly, there is very little at all. She uses an encapsulated, coated pill. I have never smelled it on her, but she says sometimes she feels as is people might. I think she is just worried that it does. Nothing compared to the trade off of feeling better than when she took lipitor. She felt horrible when she was on it.

When her DR. checked her last, he thought she had a problem, but it was actually that her good numbers were high, so her overall seemed to high. Her bad numbers were excellent.

 

[pgnewarkboy]

Their patent expires at the end of the month, so after that there will be true generic alternatives, by prescription but a lot cheaper.

After Patent Expires, Pfizer Staying with Lipitor
Nov. 2, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires reporter Peter Loftus has details of Pfizer's decision to aggressively market branded cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor after the patent expires at the end of November
http://www.marketwatch.com/video/as...CBFD3B9#!D1D968EE-C7A7-4B80-BA87-0BC78CBFD3B9

Even now, if you're under 65 (i.e. not on Medicare) you can get a card here that reduces your co-pay to $4.00
https://www.lipitor.com/patients/LipitorCoPayCardRegistration.aspx

It gets a little tricky to understand but the patent actually expired over one year ago and pfizer filed suit - not over the expiration of the patent- but other matters which stopped other companies from making it until NOW.

Most will say "Understandably" Pfizer wanted to keep that cash cow as long as possible. I don't understand greed or honor it.

 

[Makai Guy]

Even now, if you're under 65 (i.e. not on Medicare) you can get a card here that reduces your co-pay to $4.00
https://www.lipitor.com/patients/LipitorCoPayCardRegistration.aspx

I actually had my cardiologist switch me from Crestor to Lipitor because of this. Getting my copay down to $4/month was great.

Turns out there was a fly in the ointment, though. Pfizer will only subsidize your copay up to $30/month. My mail-order pharmacy didn't take the Pfizer card so I had to purchase one month at a time from a local pharmacy, and my insurance only allows local purchase for up to 3 months -- anything longer has to be via their mail-order or the copay increases drastically. On month 4, after the copay went up, even with the $30 from Pfizer, it still ended up quite a bit more expensive than the Crestor I had before, so now I've switched back. Both do a great job of controlling my cholesterol, at least.