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Generic
cholesterol drugs vital to helping consumers,
nation lower health-care costs …In wake of
Lipitor effort, CR Best Buy Drugs reminds
consumers, doctors that generic statins can help
those who have trouble paying for medications
WASHINGTON, April 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- As the maker of Lipitor reportedly urges
doctors to carefully consider prescribing
generics to lower cholesterol,
Consumer Reports
Best Buy Drugs reminds consumers that
generic statins are
as effective as high-priced brands for most people who need a statin
drug, and can help consumers save more than $1,000 a year.
"The three generics
available to lower cholesterol and help prevent heart attacks can
save consumers significant amounts of money, and that is critical
for those patients who have trouble paying for their medicines,"
said Gail Shearer, director of Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs,
http://www.CRBestBuyDrugs.org.
"A person is much more likely to continue taking a needed medicine
if they can afford it."
"Generic statins
are becoming increasingly less expensive over time," Shearer said.
"Every person with high cholesterol or who is at elevated risk of
heart attack or stroke should discuss generic statins with their
physician, and determine which drug is best for their condition."
Recent news reports
say that Pfizer, the maker of Lipitor, has been sending letters to
doctors to slow the tide of patients switching from that drug to one
of the three generic statins. In particular, Lipitor is competing
with two new generics -- pravastatin and simvastatin -- that came
onto the market late last year. The generics are versions of
Pravachol and
Zocor,
respectively.
Consumer Reports
Best Buy Drugs selects lovastatin, pravastatin and simvastatin as
"Best Buys" for most types of cholesterol reduction. Lovastatin and
pravastatin are recommended if "bad" cholesterol, or LDL, needs to
be reduced by less than 30 percent. Simvastatin is recommended if
LDL reduction of 30 percent or greater is needed and/or the patient
has had a heart attack or diabetes; or if the patient has had a
heart attack and their LDL level is not highly elevated.
Lipitor is a
recommended "Best Buy" for a select group of patients --those who
have had a heart attack or have acute coronary syndrome with a
highly elevated LDL level. Consumer Reports recommends using the
drug for
two years and then
reconfirming the need or switching to simvastatin after consulting
with a physician.
A February analysis
of the statin market by CR Best Buy Drugs found that despite the
introduction of new generics, the brand-names retained a significant
share of all statin prescriptions -- 71 percent.
Lipitor alone
acounted for an average 43 percent of all statin prescriptions in
the latter half of 2006.
The analysis found that statin prescriptions rose by an average of
500,000 a month between October 2005 and December 2006. The increase
was enhanced by the availability of the two generics.
By December 2006,
simvastatin had garnered 2.5 million prescriptions -- 200,000 to
300,000 more than Zocor was averaging per month prior to its patent
expiration.
Pravastatin
prescriptions averaged 611,000 a month in the second half of 2006,
and by December had reached 631,000. Pravachol prescriptions fell
from an average 743,000 per month between October 2005 and May 2006,
to 133,000 in December 2006.
A February 2007
update of the Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs statin report is
available at
http://www.crbestbuydrugs.org/drugreport_DR_Statins.shtml.
The statin market analysis, also issued in February, can be found at
http://www.crbestbuydrugs.org/press.shtml