10 popular drugs that are about to lose their patents
The expiration of patent law is one of the key factors for pharmaceutical companies, so it is not surprising that the pharmaceutical companies are trying to extend it: expanding indications for use, studying actions for different age groups of patients, etc.
The US pharmaceutical market is a tasty morsel for drug manufacturers around the world, so the loss of patent protection may be of interest to many pharmaceutical companies, and for manufacturers of original drugs to mean a serious decline in income.
We present you a selection of 10 drugs, which are likely to lose patent protection in the US in 2017.
- A drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.
Revenue from sales in the US in 2016 amounted to 3.479 billion dollars.
- The drug for the treatment of erectile dysfunction Cialis (tadalafil) company “Eli Lilly”.
Revenue from drug sales in the US in 2016: $ 1.469 billion. According to Evaluate, Cialis’s sales in monetary terms are about 14% of Eli Lilly’s sales revenue globally and 16% in the US.
- Viagra (sildenafil) company Pfizer.
In 2016, sales of a well-known drug for the treatment of erectile dysfunction in the US amounted to 1.148 billion dollars, and the term of its patent protection is coming to an end already in December this year.
- The drug for the treatment of multiple myeloma Velcade (bortezomib) of the company Takeda.
Revenue from sales in the US in 2016 amounted to 1.13 billion dollars. Patent protection ends in 2017, and by 2022, analysts estimate that the sales of Velcade (bortezomib) in the US will drop to $ 187 million.
- Antiviral drug for the treatment of HIV infections Sustiva (efavirenz) of the company “Bristol-Myers Squibb”.
Revenue from drug sales in the US in 2016 amounted to 901 million dollars, and the expiry date of the patent is coming to an end already in December 2017.
- Sandostatin LAR (octreotide) from Novartis.
Sales of the drug for the treatment of acromegaly, a disorder caused by excess production of growth hormone that affects less than 20,000 patients in the US, brought Novartis $ 853 million in 2016. Patent protection for the drug came to an end in January of the current year.
- Norditropin SimpleXx (somatotropin) from Novo Nordisk.
The drug for the treatment of disruption of the growth process among children with insufficient endogenous growth hormone, chronic renal failure among children accompanied by growth retardation, Shereshevsky-Turner syndrome, osteoporosis, and immunodeficiency syndrome, accompanied by a decrease in body weight, loses its patent protection in December 2017. And the proceeds from the sale of the drug in the US in 2016 amounted to 642.5 million dollars.
- Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) from Gilead Sciences.
Viread is a class of antiretroviral drugs known as reverse transcriptase inhibitors of nucleotide analogs that block reverse transcriptase, the most important viral enzyme in the human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1).
Revenue from drug sales in the US in 2016 amounted to 591 million dollars.
- Antidepressant Pristiq (desvenlafaxine) of the company “Pfizer”.
The term of patent protection of the drug ended in March this year, bringing “Pfizer” 578 million dollars from sales in the United States.
- Strattera (atomoxetine) of the company “Eli Lilly”.
The drug Strattera (atomoxetine), intended for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, brought Eli Lilly $ 535 million in 2016, and the patent loss will occur in May of this year.
