Floodgates open
As a flurry of blockbuster drugs lose their 20-year patent protection, the market is splitting wide open as drugmakers offer competing generic versions.
One of the best-known drugs going generic this year is the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor (atorvastatin), which brought in an estimated $5.3 billion in U.S. sales in 2010. The cost of Lipitor is expected to drop from an average cost of $228 per prescription to $46 per prescription in its generic form. It is slated to go generic in November.
Zyprexa (olanzapine), Eli Lilly's top-selling drug, prescribed for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, is expected to drop from $747 per prescription to $149, once it goes generic in October.
The following is a partial list of other notable blockbusters that either have already gone off patent or are in the pipeline and expected to do so by the end of 2014:
Psychiatric Pharmacist Working to Optimize Treatment, Improve Patient Safety
December 13th 2024A conversation with Nina Vadiei, PharmD, BCPP, clinical associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy at University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy and a clinical pharmacy specialist in psychiatry at the San Antonio State Hospital.
