Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1097
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: news
Woodman R.
Generics spark cholesterol drug war in UK, Germany
Reuters 2003 May 5
Full text:
A fierce battle for sales of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs is looming in Britain and Germany as generic companies line up to launch cheap copycat versions of Merck & Co Inc’s (nyse: MRK – news -people) Zocor. Zocor, or simvastatin, which had global sales of $1.25 billion in the first quarter, loses patent protection in both countries this week and numerous generic companies are ready to enter the market. In Britain, where Zocor sells more than any other medicine, a Department of Health spokesman said nine generic firms had been granted marketing authorisation. An analyst at Lehman Brothers said that with so much competition the price of simvastatin could fall by up to 90 percent. She said this would make life very difficult for AstraZeneca Plc’s new so-called “superstatin”, Crestor, which has just been launched in Britain at the same price as Zocor and the other branded statins.
Statin drugs, which help reduce levels of harmful cholesterol in the blood, are among the most widely used medicines in the Western world. The global statin market is worth around $19 billion and is growing at around 15 percent annually. The generic companies declined to disclose the price of their versions of simvastatin in the UK but in Germany the AOK health insurance group said recently prices could be 43 percent cheaper as a result of a deal it had concluded with the German generic company Hexal.
Astrazeneca Sanguine An AstraZeneca spokesman said: “We do not believe generics will inhibit market penetration for Crestor (which) gets eight out of 10 patients to their (cholesterol) goal compared with five out of 10 for simvastatin.
“Experience has shown that the negative impact of a generic alternative is to the brand it is replacing, rather than other brands in the same class.” Merck declined to respond saying it would be inappropriate to comment on the activities of other companies.
The lion’s share of Zocor sales are in the United States, where the drug has patent protection until 2005. In Europe, analysts believe part of Merck’s defence strategy is to promote the newly launched cholesterol-lowering agent Ezetrol/Zetia in collaboration with Schering-Plough Corp. Industry sources also suggested Merck could be the first company to respond to UK government encouragement to apply for the right to sell Zocor over-the-counter (OTC), without prescription. Switching medicines to OTC following patent expiry is a strategy frequently employed by drug companies to defend sales of well-known branded products.
The German statin market is worth around 1.4 billion euros ($1.57 billion) a year, half of which has been captured by Pfizer Inc’s (nyse: PFE – news – people) Lipitor and nearly a third by Zocor. In Britain, Zocor sales totalled around 185 million pounds ($298 million) in 2002. The UK department of health said the generic companies with simvastatin marketing authorisation were Alpharma Ltd, Approved Prescription Services Ltd, Arrow Generics Ltd, A/S Gea Farmaceutisk Fabrik, Generics (UK) Ltd, Genthon BV, Lagap Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Ratiopharm Gmbh and Sterwin Medicines.
