Lipitor, Atorvastatin News

Actavis is buying Warner Chilcott in an all-stock deal valued at about $8.5 billion that would create the third-biggest specialty pharmaceutical company in the U.S. market.

In documents filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission , the company declared that it is setting a $70 million goal for the initial public offering and will be traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol ESPR .

The plant that manufactures the API for Lipitor is the third Irish facility to be sold by Pfizer as patent expiration and lower sales have caused a redundancy in operations.

Ranbaxy USA, Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to criminal information charging violations of the Food and Drug and Cosmetic Act and other criminal statutes involving the manufacturing and distribution of Atorvastatin, the generic form of Lipitor.

Ranbaxy, a subsidiary of Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo, has paid a $500 million fine and pled guilty to selling adulterated drugs manufactured in India .

A price check of five blockbuster drugs that now have generics on the market, including Lipitor for cholesterol and the blood-thinner Plavix, shows significant price differences depending on which pharmacy you shop.

Doctors advise patients who take statin drugs and some other medication to refrain from drinking grapefruit juice or eating the fruit.

Indian generic drug-maker Ranbaxy Laboratories pleaded guilty today to seven federal criminal counts of selling adulterated drugs with intent to defraud, failing to report that its drugs didn't meet specifications, and making intentionally false statements to the government.

A study released by the IMS Institute for Health Informatics finds that per capita spending on medicines declined by $33 in 2012.

On May 3, 2013, the FDA approved a Big Pharma Cartel founding member Merck drug Liptruzet.

Drugmakers Actavis Inc. and Warner Chilcott PLC said Friday that they in early talks about a possible combination of the two companies.

Spending on prescription medicines in the U.S. fell for the first time in more than five decades last year.

Ranbaxy Laboratories missed analysts' estimates for its January-March quarter, reporting a 90 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 126 crore.

It's likely if you're sick, your doctor is more inclined to prescribe a brand name drug in place of its generic equivalent.

I have discussed Vytorin several times before. The combination of Zetia , the cholesterol absorption inhibitor discovered at Schering-Plough, with Merck's simvastatin looked as if it should be a very effective cholesterol-lowering medication, but the real-world data have been consistently puzzling .

One thing that you may not realize about big drug companies is that, in terms of the number of pills they sell, they are much less big than they were just five years ago.

Patent expirations on big-name drugs such as Lipitor and Plavix has resulted in modestly less spending on medicines in the United States for the first time in at least 55 years, according to a report released on Thursday.

Only 19 drugs have ever netted at least $5 billion in annual sales -- and most were at their peak --according to a list compiled by Simon King of Forbes earlier this year.

Millions of people take statins, which are drugs that chemically lower the levels of cholesterol in the blood.

Drug major Ranbaxy Laboratories today reported a 89.91 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 125.75 crore for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013, mainly on account of absence of contribution from exclusivities.