TRENTON, N.J. — Lipitor is so valuable that Pfizer is practically paying people to keep taking its blockbuster cholesterol medicine after generic competition hits the U.S. market this week. Pfizer has devised discounts and incentives for patients, insurers and companies that process prescriptions that will, at least for the next six months, make the brand-name drug about as cheap as or cheaper than the generics.
Pfizer also has spent tens of millions of dollars this year on marketing to keep patients on Lipitor, which loses patent protection today. Normally, when a drug’s patent ends, generic rivals grab nearly all its market share in a year or less.
Pfizer is not giving up that easily on the best-selling drug in history. Lipitor had peak sales of about $13 billion and still brings in nearly $11 billion a year, about a sixth of Pfizer’s revenue. With no new blockbusters to fill that hole, the company is making an unprecedented push to hang on to Lipitor revenue as long as possible.
“If I can get the name brand at the same price or for pennies more than the generic, I have no motivation to switch,” said Richard Shiekman, 59. The Associated Press
