Will US patients shift to Ranbaxy's copy

Ranbaxy has finally launched its much-awaited copy of Lipitor but now the key question is whether consumers will shift their loyalties from Pfizer's original.

If consumers quoted in US media are to be believed, then Ranbaxy has a good chance.

‘Lipitor's patent loss is consumers gain' said an online report in

Los Angeles Times adding that patent expiration opens the door to generics resulting in sharply lower prices for patients and lower sales for drug makers.

The

LA Times quoted Wisconsin retiree Ms Gloria Schmid, 68, as saying that the lower price would help her afford her Lipitor prescription on a tight budget. She has been paying $63 a month for the medicine even with insurance.

“That would be marvellous,” Ms Schmid said of the savings. “As you get older, your resources get to be less and less. That's what worries me.”

But it is not going to be a cakewalk for the Daiichi Sankyo-controlled drug-maker. A report in Chicago Tribune said that in theory, the loss of the patent should remove billions of dollars in costs from the healthcare system at Pfizer's expense, but the reality is more complicated.

An Associated Press report from New Jersey quoted one Mr Richard Shiekman, 59, who has been taking Lipitor for six years and credits the drug with sharply cutting his bad cholesterol.

“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 Mr Shiekman.

A wine and spirits importer from Redding, Connecticut, he got a $4 co-pay card two weeks ago after his pharmacy sent an offer guaranteeing that price through December 2011.

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, the AP report said.

tkt@thehindu.co.in