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Lipitor, Generic Alternative Clash In Cholesterol War

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By STEPHANIE SAUL and ALEX BERENSON, New York Times

Published: November 4, 2007

It is shaping up to be the biggest shift yet to a generic drug, potentially saving the nation $2 billion a year or more in prescription costs.

Scientists and doctors say that for most of the 16 million people in America who take drugs to reduce cholesterol, the low-priced alternative will work as well as the name-brand medicine Lipitor, the nation's most widely prescribed drug.

Although Lipitor itself is not available as a generic, a similar generic drug, simvastatin, became available last year. Simvastatin is much cheaper than Lipitor, leading insurers to press doctors and patients to switch.

Lipitor's maker, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, is not letting its flagship drug go down without a fight, though. The company has mounted a campaign that includes advertisements, lobbying efforts and a paid speaking tour by Louis W. Sullivan, a former secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Pfizer also is promoting a study - whose findings many experts are questioning - that concluded that British patients who switched to simvastatin had more heart attacks and deaths than those who remained on Lipitor.
Lipitor and other cholesterol-lowering drugs, sometimes called statins, are the largest drug class, with spending of $22 billion last year in the United States alone.

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