Insurers Promote Use Of Generic Anticholesterol Drugs

Main Category: Cholesterol
Also Included In: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 25 May 2007 - 2:00 PDT

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The Syracuse Post-Standard on Monday examined how many health insurers have begun to encourage members to use generic versions of the anticholesterol medication Zocor, which reached the U.S. market last June, rather than Lipitor, manufactured by Pfizer, to reduce costs.

For example, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield of New York has begun to provide members with a one-month supply of simvastatin, the generic version of Zocor, at no cost and has reduced the cost of simvastatin for members to about $7.50 monthly, compared with about $135 monthly for Lipitor. Joel Owerbach, chief pharmacy officer for Excellus, said, "Lipitor is a great drug, but the reality is, for the vast majority of people who are taking Lipitor, you can get to the same place by taking a drug that's going to cost a lot less."

Meanwhile, Pfizer has begun an "ad blitz" to promote the use of Lipitor, which will lose patent protection in 2010, the Post-Standard reports. The market share of Lipitor has decreased from 34.7% to 28.9% since generic versions of Zocor reached the market, but first-quarter sales of Lipitor increased by 8% to $3.36 billion. Arthur Levin of the Center for Medical Consumers said that Lipitor sales are "very important to the company's bottom line," adding that "they are going to do everything possible to not allow that position to erode" (Mulder, Syracuse Post-Standard, 5/22).

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