Generic Prozac price war brewing

Drug Store News, Feb 18, 2002

A Prozac price war is predicted by at least one generic drug maker. Approximately 30 current and tentative approvals for generic Prozac (fluoxetine) were entered on the Food and Drug Administration's drug applications list as of early this month. One fluoxetine maker, Teva, said it expects a price war to ensue with Barr Laboratories and other generic makers of Prozac.

"The price is going to drop to somewhere between 10 percent to 25 percent of the original," Teva chief financial officer Dan Suesskind told Bloomberg News. "It's certainly more difficult to grab a share of the market when somebody's there already."

Eli Lilly lost its last remaining court bid to hold on to antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine HCl) when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take the case last month.

Barr launched a generic version of the $2.5 billion-a-year drug in August. Lilly tried through the courts to extend its patent protection on Prozac through December 2003.

"We are pleased, but not at all surprised that the Supreme Court has decided that the Court of Appeals' decision did not merit further review, said Bruce Downey, Barr's chairman and chief executive officer. Nearly 80 percent of all Prozac prescriptions now are filled generically, he said.

Lilly is expected to focus marketing efforts on its schizophrenia drug Zyprexa (olanzapine), osteoporosis drug Evista (raloxifene) and Cialis (IC351), proposed new erectile dysfunction drug under FDA review.