{"id":14300,"date":"2011-11-30T11:14:08","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T16:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/?post_type=news&#038;p=14300"},"modified":"2011-11-30T11:14:08","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T16:14:08","slug":"generic-atorvastatin-hits-the-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/2011\/11\/30\/generic-atorvastatin-hits-the-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Generic Atorvastatin Hits the Market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first generic version of Lipitor (atorvastatin) became available today as the exclusive patent held by Pfizer finally expired. Lipitor was by far\u00a0the most successful prescription drug in history.<\/p>\n<p>Watson Pharmaceuticals\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ir.watson.com\/phoenix.zhtml?c=65778&amp;p=irol-newsArticle&amp;ID=1634538&amp;highlight=\">announced<\/a>\u00a0an authorized generic version. One other\u00a0company, Ranbaxy, has been authorized to market atorvastatin, but has struggled to gain FDA approval of its manufacturing plant.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052970204012004577069943298865020.html\">The company has said<\/a>\u00a0it will launch its generic version of atorvastatin later this week.<\/p>\n<p>For the next 6 months, Pfizer, Watson, and Ranbaxy are the only companies that will be authorized to sell atorvastatin. After that, however, the floodgates will open, and the price of atorvastatin will drop to pennies per day.<\/p>\n<p>Here are links to a few of the many news reports and features about this major story:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/blockbuster-drug-bows-out-1.9495\"><em>Nature News<\/em>: Blockbuster drug bows out<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052970204753404577066603486415064.html\"><em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>:\u00a0Generic Lipitor Goes on Sale This Week: A Users\u2019 Guide<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/matthewherper\/2011\/11\/30\/why-there-will-never-be-another-drug-like-lipitor\/\"><em>Forbes<\/em>:\u00a0Why There Will Never Be Another Drug Like Lipitor<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/11\/30\/health\/generic-lipitor-sets-off-an-aggressive-push-by-pfizer.html?_r=1\"><em>New York Times<\/em>:\u00a0Facing Generic Lipitor Rivals, Pfizer Battles to Protect Its Cash Cow<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.webmd.com\/cholesterol-management\/news\/20111129\/faq-generic-lipitor\"><em>WebMD Health News<\/em>:\u00a0Lipitor Goes Generic: What It Means for You<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first generic version of Lipitor (atorvastatin) became available today as the exclusive patent held by Pfizer finally expired. Lipitor was by far\u00a0the most successful prescription drug in history. Watson Pharmaceuticals\u00a0announced\u00a0an authorized generic version. One other\u00a0company, Ranbaxy, has been authorized to market atorvastatin, but has struggled to gain FDA approval of its manufacturing plant.\u00a0The company [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[585,223,934,584],"class_list":["post-14300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prevention","tag-atorvastatin","tag-generics","tag-lipitor","tag-statins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}