4/24/2015

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“We provide truthful information without emotion or influence from the medical establishment, pharmaceutical industry, national organizations, special interest groups or government agencies.”  Charles B Simone, M.MS., M.D.

LIPITOR

Lawrenceville, NJ (Dr Simone) – March 2012 – Pfizer earned $7 billion in 2010 from Lipitor (atorvastatin). Lipitor’s patent expired in June 2011. Ordering generic atorvastatin is projected to save Americans $4.5 billion by 2014. Sounds great, right? Well, Pfizer contracted with a company in India, Ranbaxy, to manufacture the generic version. But Ranbaxy at the time was under investigation by our Food and Drug Administration. And this 5 month delay cost Americans an estimated $324 million in savings, money that Pfizer still made. Now, atorvastatin is manufactured in a US facility, Ohm Laboratories. In addition, Pfizer cleverly has an agreement to provide Watson Pharmaceuticals with Lipitor to sell (without the brand-name label) at an entry level generic price, in return for a share of the sales. The National Drug Code number at Watson for generic Lipitor is 00591 3777 19, the number that is assigned to this prescription drug in the US by the Food and Drug Administration.

This agreement actually extends Lipitor’s monopoly and may set a precedent for future blockbuster drugs soon to go off patent.

(c) 2017 Charles B. Simone, M.MS., M.D.