Apotex Inc, a Canadian owned pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Toronto, launched today Apo-Atorvastatin, a generic version of ‘Lipitor(R)’ produced by Pfizer(R). This is the largest product to be genericized in Canadian history with approximate yearly sales of $1.2 billion. This last patent onLipitor(R) will not expire until 2022. Apotex Inc. invented its own crystal form, thus overcoming the patents, 12 years ahead of time, which will result in close to $7 billion of cost-savings for the Canadian healthcare system.
"This is a historical moment as Provincial governments are struggling with increasing deficits. In the last 35 years, Apotex has been leading the way in bringing affordable medicines for consumers" stated Jack Kay, Apotex President and COO. The risks for companies like ours to develop products and to litigate are huge, but the real beneficiaries are the public and private payers and consumers" concluded Mr. Kay.
Apotex spent many years and many millions of dollars on the development and litigation processes for this product.
Apo-Atorvastatin is a 100% Canadian made product including not only Research & Development and tablet manufacturing, but also chemical synthesis.