Generic Prozac available today
Advertiser News Services
Prozac, the all-time best-selling anti-depressant, will be available generically in the United States starting today.
Gannett News Service
That means the price of the drug could drop immediately from $2.50 a capsule to less than $2 and eventually as low as 50 cents for the generic form.
A 40 mg version of Prozac is counted out at the Lilly Technology Center in Indianapolis. Beginning today, its generic form will be available at up to 40 percent cheaper.
That means the approximately 2 million people taking Prozac would save up to $383 annually.
"I think it's a wonderful thing. It will make Prozac available to more people," said Mike Maloney, executive director of KEY Consumer Organization, an Indiana advocacy group for mentally ill adults. Maloney took Prozac for six years to treat depression.
Barr Laboratories started yesterday shipping the generic form of Prozac to stores for sale.
Eli Lilly and Co.'s patent for Prozac expired yesterday, paving the way for Food and Drug Administration approval of Barr's product, which is called fluoxetine and is available only with a prescription.
Prozac generated $2.6 billion in sales for Lilly last year. It became a blockbuster because it lacks the harsh side effects of earlier depression medicines, an advance that spurred more doctors to prescribe the medicine.
Prozac ranked as the ninth most widely sold prescription drug in the world last year.
A six-year battle over rights to Prozac ended last week when a federal judge in Indianapolis issued an order invalidating a patent that would have protected Lilly's monopoly until December 2003. Lilly still plans to appeal but conceded it is unlikely the case will be heard.
Barr's Virginia factory has been working 10 hours a day, six days a week, since February to manufacture the 150 million capsules for the launch of fluoxetine.
Time is important because Barr has six months of market exclusivity to sell the 20 milligram capsule, which now accounts for 80 percent to 90 percent of Prozac's revenues. Four other companies have exclusive six-month rights to other strengths or tablet forms of the generic drug.
