Happy Holidays: Generic Lipitor Hits Pharmacies This Month

After a five-year reign as the #1 selling drug on the market, mighty Lipitor (aka atorvastatin) will come off patent on November 30th, 2011. Lipitor had more than $10 billion dollars in sales last year and has been prescribed to more than 17 million patients in the United States, alone.

In time for the Holiday Season, all those using the lipid-lowering blockbuster will be able to get their prescriptions filled for $30-$50/month shortly after Thanksgiving, as opposed to the nearly $200/month that they had payed on Halloween.

Despite several other statins already available in generic form (e.g. simvastatin, lovatstatin, etc), generic Lipitor, atorvastatin, will be the most potent to join the crew.

You can watch Dr. Howard Weintraub from NYU discuss it here.