By the time Lipitor went on sale in early , it was the fifth drug in a class called statins that lower LDL or bad cholesterol. Normally, that would make it very tough for a latecomer to sway many doctors and patients to switch.
But a study showed Lipitor reduced bad cholesterol dramatically more than the other statins, from the very start of treatment and even more so over time. Nicknamed "turbostatin," Lipitor became the top-selling statin barely three years after it was launched. It's provided 20 percent to 25 percent of Pfizer Inc. But after nearly a decade as the top-selling drug, Lipitor is set to be toppled in after getting its first generic rivals four weeks ago.
It's a run not likely to be repeated. Back in the early s, the public was just starting to learn what cholesterol was. There was little evidence that controlling it with medication could be so crucial in preventing disability and early death, and the coming epidemic of obesity and diabetes in an aging population wasn't foreseen. Here are their comments: Donald Lloyd-Jones Northwestern University: This is a very exciting development certainly.
Milligram for milligram, rosuvastatin is the most potent statin that is on the market. It does not have the duration of safety track record that atorva does, so I am not sure it would supplant atorva for many patients, but it is good to have another option for generic potent high-intensity statins.
The key step of establishing stereocenters, using of a chiral ester auxiliary approach. The first synthesis of atorvastatin at Parke-Davis that occurred during drug discovery was racemic followed by chiral chromatographic separation of the enantiomers. An early enantioselective route to atorvastatin made use of an ester chiral auxiliary to set the stereochemistry of the first of the two alcohol functional groups via a diastereoselective aldol reaction.
The final commercial production of atorvastatin relied on a chiral pool approach, where the stereochemistry of the first alcohol functional group was carried into the synthesis—through the choice of isoascorbic acid , an inexpensive and easily sourced plant-derived natural product. Mevacor, which was first marketed in , was the industry's first statin and Merck's synthetic version — simvastatin — was in the advanced stages of development.
Early results comparing atorvastatin vs. Tablets are white, elliptical, and film-coated. Pfizer also packages the medication in combination with other medications, such as with amlodipine brand name Caduet. Lipitor creator Warner-Lambert, a midsized drugmaker best known for consumer health products including Listerine, Benadryl allergy pills and Halls cough drops, got a late start in what turned into a surprisingly fast-growing market.
They didn't think we could be a viable contender," said Adele Gulfo, then head of cardiovascular marketing at Warner-Lambert Co. Doctors said they were "quite satisfied with the medicines we have," she recalled recently.
They had, but didn't see it. It's millions of dollars. The results were far better than what had been seen in the animal tests. Pfizer bought out Warner-Lambert in to block two other companies trying to acquire it and get control of Lipitor.
But Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker by revenue, has struggled to develop another runaway blockbuster. In recent years, Pfizer has focused on creating other types of drugs and on another unprecedented strategy — this one for hanging onto Lipitor revenue until June, when multiple new generic Lipitor versions will join one sold by Ranbaxy Laboratories and the authorized generic from Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. But branded Lipitor is by no means history.
Its patent is still in force in many major foreign countries and Pfizer is promoting it heavily in emerging markets such as China. Pfizer's strategy to keep U.
The number of Lipitor prescriptions filled in the first full week after generics arrived only fell by half. Sanford Bernstein analyst Dr. That would make it Pfizer's No.
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