Patent death watch

A history of excessive weight, insufficient exercise, and a predilection for the salty side of life (in addition to my particular genetic and racial makeup) has placed your humble correspondent among the jillion or so Americans with high blood pressure. Like many of those folks, I'm now living a healthier lifestyle in order to deal with hypertension; I also take antihypertensive drugs. Among them had been a highly-touted medicine called Norvasc (amlodipine besylate), produced by Pfizer. My doctor was fairly excited over my taking the new med, and so was I until I had that initial prescription filled. Norvasc, effective though it may be, is one pricey pill: the Walgreen's price for a 30 count at 5mg is over fifty dollars. Ouchie. That's more than the cost of my other two bp meds combined. My wife (though solicitous of my health, as always) suggested I could go cheaper, and the doc moved me to another drug.

All this is by way of explaining my interest in a sidebar in the November 27 issue of CQ Weekly that dealt with the impending expiration of patent protection for some bigtime medications. Norvasc is among them; the drug, which has earned Pfizer some serious cheddar ($4.7 billion in 2005), loses its patent protection on January 31, 2007. This will pave the way for more affordable generic versions, while Pfizer (1) says that Norvasc wasn't all that good anyway and (2) puts out a brand-new and even more expensive blood pressure pill. Pretty interesting how this drug business works, eh?

Here are a few drugs that have recently come off patent:

Pravachol (cholesterol)
from Bristol-Myers Squibb
Expired April 20, 2006
2005 sales: $1.7 billion

Zocor (cholesterol)
from Merck
Expired June 23, 2006
2005 sales: $4.4 billion

Wellbutrin XL (depression)
from GlaxoSmithKline
Expired August 28, 2006
2005 sales: $1.5 billion

Ambien (insomnia)
from Sanofi-aventis U.S.
Expired October 21, 2006
2005 sales: $2.1 billion

(Cross-posted. Spelling of Pfizer corrected.)