Lipitor, the highest-selling drug of all time

Lipitor is the main drug from a family of medicines called statins, which are used to lower blood cholesterol levels. Other drugs in this class include: fluvastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin and simvastatin. Generic versions of the drug are available and are sold under the name atorvastatin. Lipitor and atorvastatin contain the exact same active pharmaceutical ingredient (drug molecule) and are equally effective.

Beyond Lipitor: New Injections Could Help Reduce 'Bad' Cholesterol

For people whose cholesterol is resistant to medication or for those who cannot tolerate statins, a new type of therapy may bring some relief. The treatment uses antibodies to help increase the number of LDL receptors in liver cells, so that more of the "bad" cholesterol molecules can be cleared from the bloodstream.

Discovery of Lipitor

Parke-Davis was not the first drug company to put a statin on the market (Merck was), but it was the one to do it the best, with Lipitor (atorva statin). When Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals in Ann Arbor, Michigan, began to look for its own statin in 1982, it was late in the game. Parke-Davis’s Lipitor was discovered in the mid- to late 1980s and brought to market in 1997. Already ahead of it were four statins: Merck’s Mevacor was released in September 1987 and Zocor in December 1991, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Pravachol in October 1991, and Sandoz’s Lescol in March 1994. Despite the competition, by 2006 Lipitor had become the best-selling drug in history...

Effect of atorvastatin on testosterone levels

Statins are one of the most prescribed classes of drugs worldwide. Atorvastatin, the most prescribed statin, is currently used to treat conditions such as hypercholesterolaemia and dyslipidaemia. By reducing the level of cholesterol, which is the precursor of the steroidogenesis pathway, atorvastatin may cause a reduction in levels of testosterone and other androgens. Testosterone and other androgens play important roles in biological functions.

End Of An Era: Lipitor Goes Generic

So what does all this mean for pocketbooks? At first, prices for Lipitor and the equivalent generics should drop a little. After six months, when more many companies will be allowed to produce generic Lipitor, the price for the drug should plummet to pennies a day.

Lipitor inventor takes aim at cholesterol again

The Ann Arbor scientist widely credited with co-discovering the best-selling drug in U.S. history — cholesterol-lowering Lipitor — is quietly back at it. After reviving Ann Arbor-area Esperion Therapeutics in 2008 — just a year after Pfizer had closed the first version of the biotech company — Roger Newton is once again taking aim at cholesterol. This time he's taking a different approach: Seeking to create a drug that reduces so-called bad LDL cholesterol in people whose bodies don't respond well to statins.

Lipitor Rage

If statins carried a rare but serious side effect, would we ever find out? The consensus view among doctors holds that statins pose no mental-health risks to consumers, and for the moment there’s not much reason for most people to worry about becoming violent while taking the drug. But history has shown that many important drug side effects are slow to gain recognition—a 2002 JAMA study showed that only half of all serious drug side effects are detected within seven years of the drug’s approval.

The Birth of a Blockbuster: Lipitor's Route out of the Lab

"The number of factors, internal and external, that had to come together for the drug to be a success really boggles the mind," says Bruce D. Roth, a senior director and chemist at Parke-Davis who invented the molecule that became Lipitor.

The Story of LIPITOR ® - A Peek into the World of Pharmaceutical Process Chemistry

“The story of how Pfizer acquired the rights to an improved statin and turned it into the all-time biggest blockbuster is a tale of hyperaggresive marketing, deft timing, financial power and plain dumb luck!” Fortune, 2003, January 20.