Pfizer Inc.’s patent for the cholesterol drug Lipitor is set to expire Wednesday, New York Daily News reports.
Consequently, Lipitor, the nation’s best-selling drug [$11 billion a year for Pfizer], is about to get a lot cheaper. And while that may not be good news for Pfizer, it is good news for many patients struggling to pay for prescription drugs.
Bronx cashier Emily Flores had to stop taking Lipitor because her insurance no longer covered the medication. Last week, Flores drove to a lower-cost pharmacy in Westchester to fill her prescription but was shocked by the price when she got there. “They wanted $500 and change for a 90-day supply. I was devastated,” she told New York Daily News. “I told them, ‘I was expecting you to have a generic.’ He said, ‘Not yet.’”
Flores, 63, left the pharmacy empty-handed and went to talk with her doctor about taking an alternative drug.
“But now I might be able to afford it,” she told New York Daily News.
Dr. Robert Ostfeld, a cardiologist at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, welcomes the expiration of the patent, which, he told New York Daily News, has kept prices too high for some of his patients.
