QDIS Blog

I thought I would put together a list of brand name pharmaceuticals whose patents are due to expire this year. Many are expiring between now an 2010 and represent $75 BILLION in revenue; $17.7 billion in 2007. I’ll focus on the near term and those expiring in 2007.

1. Norvasc, prescribed for hypertension
2. Univasc, prescribed for hypertension
3. Zyrtec, prescribed for allergies.
4. Zoloft, prescribed for depression
5. Allegra, prescribed for allergies
6. Zocor, prescribed for lowering cholesterol
7. Pravachol, prescribed for lowering cholesterol
8. Coreg, prescribed to treat congestive heart failure
9. Toprol XL, prescribed for hypertension
10. Provigil, prescribed for narcolepsy
11. Imitrex, prescribed for migranes
12. Clarinex prescribed for allergies
13. Meridia, prescribed to treat obesity
14. Risperdal, prescribed for psychosis

Most of these, except for Norvasc, Meridia, and Clarinex already have a tentatively approved generic.

For a list of brand name drugs expiring from April 2006 through Deb 2008 see RxNews® Newsletter: Patent Expiration - RxSolutions.com

If there are others I have overlooked, please send me a note or leave a comment and let me know. Also, if you want to know when the patent expires in the US for a specific drug, you can use the Electronic Orange Book Home Page from the FDA. Just do a Search by Proprietary Name, then click on the specific Appl. No. on the left side for your specific formulation and strength and this will give you a page of data including the patent expiration.

Here is the page for 10 mg Norvasc tablets.

UPDATE: I recently came across another drug whose patent expires in 2007.

Betaloc (metoprolol), prescribed for hypertension which had sales of $1.9 billion in 2006

Technorati Tags: drug patent expiration, drug patents

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