NEW YORK, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Medical experts said it was a good day for 3.3 million patients Wednesday, given one of the best-selling drugs in the United States, Lipitor, went generic.
"The fact that Lipitor is going generic should make it available to a wider group of patients," said Dr. Robert Kloner, professor of medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Yahoo! News reported.
The generic drug, atorvastatin, "is a very good medication and quite effective at lowering LDL cholesterol," added cardiologist Robert Ostfeld at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
"I think that having a generic will be a wonderful addition because, unfortunately, some of our patients have to make the very painful decision between paying the rent and taking their medication and any time we can reduce the cost without sacrificing efficacy, that's a wonderful thing," Ostfeld said.
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In terms of dollars, the monthly co-pay for Lipitor will suddenly drop from $25 per month to $15 per month, CBS News reported.
With sales of Lipitor valued at $7.2 billion in 2010, that means patients prescribed Lipitor will save $6.5 billion this year alone. On average, the price of a drug that goes generic drops 90 percent in the first year, CBS said.
In response, Pfizer is offering discounts so steep that the generic competitor may be boxed out by some insurance companies that stick with Lipitor and refuse to pick up the generic atorvastatin.
Pfizer denied that blocking out the generic with discounts would mean insurers and the federal government would have to pay $35 more per prescription, a charge asserted by a watchdog group, Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency.
Pfizer said discount prices were "at or below the cost of a generic to both payers and patients," CBS News reported.
