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Pfizer’s Lyrica goes generic with 10 copycats; price down nearly 98 percent
Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first generic versions of Pfizer’s blockbuster pain drug Lyrica (pregabalin). In this case, there was no 180-day exclusivity period for the first-to-file generic. Instead, Lyrica saw the launch of break-open generics (or generics from three or more suppliers). In such cases, generics can immediately produce massive savings upon release.
The approvals were granted to Alembic Pharmaceuticals, Alkem Laboratories, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, InvaGen Pharmaceuticals, MSN Laboratories, Rising Pharmaceuticals, Sciegen Pharmaceuticals and Teva Pharmaceuticals.
On the market since 2004, Lyrica was singled out by the generic industry’s Association of Accessible Medicines (AAM) as an example of patent abuse. AAM said Pfizer filed 118 patent applications and had 68 patents issued, with Lyrica’s price rising over 163 percent since 2012.
According to pharmacies, they can buy one of the ten generic copycats for somewhere between US$ 15 and US$ 20 per 90-count bottle. That’s US$ 0.17 to US$ 0.22 per capsule, or a 97 percent to 98 percent discount to brand-name Lyrica (which costs US$ 7.50 per capsule).
Pfizer garnered US$ 5 billion in worldwide revenue from Lyrica in 2018, US$ 5.1 billion in 2017 and about US$ 5 billion in 2016.
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