Now both of us have been on statin drugs for years and we're now on Medicare which offers 45 different drug plans in our area. We were on lipitor which was rather costly even with Medicare drug insurance because it was considered to be a brand name drug as opposed to a generic. So, our doctor switched us to Simvastatin, a generic that he thinks is not quite as good for us as Lipitor but is available with no copayment on our current plan.

Now that Pfizer's patent for Lipitor has expired, the doc told us to switch to atorvastatin, the generic equivalent of Lipitor as soon as it appears on our insurance company's formulary. Trouble is, it never appeared. But then we discovered that Lipitor is now listed in the formulary as a brand name but it is priced just like a generic - that is, no copayment.

We asked our pharmacist what was going on and she told us that Pfizer cut a deal with our insurance company to rebate the extra cost of Lipitor to them so that it would be even cheaper (for them) than atorvastatin if they would agree not to cover atorvastatin. If Pfizer does this with enough insurance companies, the folks that make atorvastatin will be forces out of business.

Big pharma strikes again!

Bev and Jerry