The United States’ leading anti-cholesterol drug, Lipitor, is now being price pressured by No. 2 Zocor, which became available in generic form in June.

Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs, a part of Consumers Union, estimates 20 million Americans take statins and about 60 percent of people who take brand-name statin drugs — Lipitor, Zocor, Vytorin and Crestor — can safely use one of three generics, USA Today reported.

Switching to a generic drug can substantially reduce employer health benefit costs. For example, the General Motors Corp. spends $200 million annually on statins for the more than 1 million people it insures. If all of GM’s statin users switched to a generic, GM’s costs will decrease to $82 million a year, the newspaper said.

New York-based Pfizer Inc., Lipitor’s manufacturer, claims studies show Lipitor is better at lowering cholesterol and the risk of heart disease and stroke, USA Today reported, noting Consumers Union suggests Lipitor for high-risk people.

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At the American Heart Association conference yesterday a new study was released that showed that Pfizer’s cholesterol drug Lipitor, showed no significant reduction in “major coronary events” versus rival treatment Merck’s Zocor.

The five-year study found no statistically significant difference between Lipitor and US drugmaker Merck’s Zocor in reducing heart disease-related death, heart attack and cardiac arrest. Results of the study were presented on Tuesday at an American Heart Association conference.

The study did show a difference in some secondary targets. Lipitor was 13 per cent better than Zocor in reducing major heart events when strokes were included.

The comparison between Lipitor and Zocor is important for Pfizer. The world’s largest drugmaker continuously seeks to develop an extensive body of data that will persuade doctors that Lipitor, the biggest-selling drug in the world with $12 billion, yes that is Billion dollars in sales this year, is better than older, cheaper drugs from the same statin class of cholesterol reducers. Pfizer wants to preserve sales in the face of generic versions of Zocor, whose US patent expires next year.
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