OTC Generic Lipitor? Will Consumers Monitor Their Own Cholesterol Levels?

Since Lipitor has come off patent, Pfizer has been facing very serious competition from the manufacturers of generic copies of its former cash-cow (see: Pfizer Lipitor Sales Are Threatened by Ranbaxy Generic Copy). But the company continues to try to breathe new life into the product by now proposing an OTC version (see: Lipitor Down, But Not Out: Pfizer Plans an OTC Version). Here are some of the details: I've been following Lipitor's "demise" ever since Pfizer vowed the drug would maintain a 40% share of the total U.S. atorvastatin market. In May 2012, we all thought Pfizer Threw In the Lipitor Marketing Towel when the Lipitor co-pay card/PBM discount plan failed to meet its goal of maintaining the aforementioned 40% share of the combined market for Lipitor and its generic equivalents for at least 6 months after generic brands were launched. At that time Lipitor's U.S. market share was 33%. Guess what Lipitor's U.S. market share versus generic atorvastatin is today. As reported in the WSJ (here), global sales of Lipitor plummeted in 2012 and 2013 to about 20% of what it was in the blockbuster heyday.... ...Pfizer is preparing to sell an over-the-counter (OTC) version of Lipitor. According to the WSJ, "Pfizer recently started a 1,200-patient clinical trial to test if consumers taking a nonprescription Lipitor get their own blood tests to see if the medicine is improving their cholesterol and then make the right decisions based on th...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Pathologists Authors: Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Laboratory Industry Trends Medical Consumerism Source Type: blogs