Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search

October 6, 2008 10:45:45 PM CDT

Learn about Newser Points »

« Back to the grid | Next story »

Deal Delays Generic Lipitor Until 2011

Posted Jun 18, 08 5:11 PM CDT in Business,  Science & Health 

(Newser) – Pfizer has struck a deal with an Indian generic drug maker to delay a cheaper version of Lipitor in the US until November 2011. The agreement limiting generic versions of the cholesterol-lowering drug will translate into billions more in profits for Pfizer, the New York Times reports. Lipitor, the world's best-selling medicine, costs about $3 a day; a generic version will likely be less than $1.

Pfizer's counsel calls the agreement “pro-patient, pro-competition, and pro-intellectual property.” But not everyone agrees. “This is clearly a miscarriage of the law,” says one analyst. Pfizer will not pay Ranbaxy—the Indian drug maker—but will allow it to sell generic Lipitor in a number of countries outside the US. The Federal Trade Commission is not expected to challenge the agreement.

Source New York Times

0 comments | Print E-mail | Digg Seed this on Newsvine Add this link to Del.icio.us StumbleUpon

Related Newser Stories

  • Dems Get Higher Doses of Drug Company Donations

    Sep 23, 08 4:43 PM CDT
    Dems Get Higher Doses of Drug Company Donations Pharmaceutical firms have been a stalwart Republican ally—$22 million of the industry’s $30 billion in contributions went to GOP congressional candidates in 2002—but drug makers are increasingly supporting Democrats, Jeanne Cummings reports in Politico. Programs such as President Bush’s prescription-drug plan mean half of pharmaceutical sales are controlled by the government, and big pharma depends on those programs staying well-funded—familiar territory for Democrats. More »

  • America: Land of Doggy Doping

    Jul 10, 08 7:07 AM CDT
    America: Land of Doggy Doping Americans spent $49 billion on their pets last year, with an ever-growing percentage paying for treatment of  behavioral issues with tailor-made psychotropics, reports James Vlahos in the New York Times Magazine. Frustrated owners are feeding dogs drugs like Reconcile—beef-flavored Prozac—-for "mental illnesses that eerily resemble human ones," from separation anxiety to compusive disorder. There are even doggy diet pills. More »

  • Big Pharma Sickens Universities

    Jun 22, 08 6:07 PM CDT
    Big Pharma Sickens Universities Weak legislation allows professors to collect huge under-the-table payments from Big Pharma, and it’s time to fight back, Dan Greenberg writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Pharmaceutical companies pay professors to shill drugs and lend their names to industry research, and the only oversight is an honor-system mechanism requiring profs to report outside income to the university—not to a federal agency. More »

  • Congress to Probe 'Misleading' Drug Ads

    May 8, 08 3:10 AM CDT
    Congress to Probe 'Misleading' Drug Ads A congressional panel will examine three ad campaigns as part of a move to tighten regulations on drug companies' direct-to-consumer marketing, the Wall Street Journal reports. The committee will focus on ads for cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Lipitor, and anemia drug Procrit, which has been promoted as an anti-fatigue drug despite FDA demands not to do so. More »

  • Doc: Merck Fudged Minutes of Meeting

    Apr 12, 08 9:33 AM CDT
    Merck's "minutes" of a meeting of heart doctors discussing cholesterol drug Vytorin were created a month after the meeting and distorted the viewpoints of the experts, one panel member changes. The drug company submitted the document to congressional investigators probing its two-year delay in releasing a report saying the drug didn't work any better than a much cheaper generic one, Bloomberg reports. More »

Forty-milligram tablets of the drug Lipitor are photographed in Glen Rock, N.J., in a file photo from Nov. 15, 2005.   (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)
The world headquarters of Pfizer Inc. is shown in this April 12, 2005, file photo in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)
Pharmacist Diane Yu holds a bottle of the prescription drug Lipitor at a Maximart pharmacy in Palo Alto, Calif. in this Dec. 14, 2007, file photo.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
Our editors also recommend:

Threads (
1
 of 2)

Tags

pharmaceutical companies  • Pfizer  • pharmaceutical industry  • cholesterol lowering drug  • Lipitor


Loading...

Premium Articles from HighBeam

Find more articles like this

Today's Most Popular

Loading...

Other Science & Health Stories

What is Newser?

2008 Codie Finalist

Newser gives you more news in less time. We search for the best and most important stories all over the web, read them for you, and deliver concise and sharp summaries—along with links to the full text. Newser provides a way to stay on top of an ever-expanding horizon of news and opinion—politics, sports, business, trends, technology, personalities, crimes, and controversies. Newser keeps you not just better informed, but, with our signature graphic interface and smart condensed format, more enjoyably informed.

Learn more »