Zocor prices go through changes as patent expires tonight

USA TODAY, June, 2006 by Rita Rubin

For months, health plans have eagerly anticipated the Friday debut of a generic version of Zocor, Merck's blockbuster cholesterol-lowering statin. Typically, generics cost 30% to 50% less than the equivalent brand-name drugs, so switching patients from Zocor, with $4.4 billion in sales last year, to generic simvastatin could result in savings of more than a billion dollars a year.

Zocor's patent expires tonight, and three generic versions are expected to enter the market Friday. Yet, at least for the next six months, some health plans will encourage patients to stay on Zocor because Merck has lowered the price to compete with generics.

"We've decided that we're going to continue to sell Zocor during those six months, and we're going to price it competitively," says...