YOUR PRESCRIPTION DRUG COUNTDOWN
BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted October 4, 2004)
I see lists all the time of top selling books and music.... the top grossing movies.... and the highest paid athletes..... so, what about prescription drugs?
Prescriptions obviously play a significant role in our quests for health and happiness.
We spend tens of billions of dollars on them every year, and there are few people past the age of, say, 40 who don't have some sort of doctor's prescription.
Someone (I don't know who) said - and I love this -
"Only in America - do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions - while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front to the store."
Last week, amid all the news about Vioxx, I found this list from Associated Press of the most successful prescription drugs in this country.
In 2003, Vioxx was #20 on the list, with sales totaling $1.8 billion - and that's just in the United States - so you can imagine the meetings that took place in the board rooms of Merck prior to it's big decision.
The shame of it is, Vioxx - in addition to it's main purpose of easing the pain of arthritis - has been seen as a possible cancer-preventer.
But when it was found to double the risk of heart attack and stroke, it came off the shelves.
Now Merck faces the likelihood of lawsuits that could have an immeasurable impact on the company.
Anyhow, here's the list of the top 20 prescription drugs in the U.S. in 2003:
1. Lipitor, $6.8 billion, cholesterol, Pfizer
2. Zocor, $4.4 billion, cholesterol, Merck
3. Prevacid, $4.0 billion, heartburn, TAP Pharmaceutical
4. Procrit, $3.3 billion, anemia, Johnson & Johnson
5. Zyprexa, $3.2 billion, mental illness, Eli Lilly
6. Epogen, $3.1 billion, anemia, Amgen
7. Nexium, $3.1 billion, heartburn, Merck
8. Zoloft, $2.9 billion, depression, Pfizer
9. Celebrex, $2.6 billion, arthritis, Pfizer
10. Neurontin, $2.4 billion, epilepsy, Pfizer
11. Advair Diskus, $2.3 billion, asthma, GlaxoSmithKline
12. Plavix, $2.2 billion, blood clots, Bristol-Myers-Squibb
13. Norvasc, $2.2 billion, high blood pressure, Pfizer
14. Effexor XR, $2.1 billion, depression, Wyeth
15. Pravachol, $2.0 billion, cholesterol, Bristol-Myers-Squibb
16. Risperdal, $2.0 billion, mental illness, Johnson & Johnson
17. Oxycontin, $1.9 billion, pain, Perdue Pharma
18. Fosamax, $1.8 billion, osteoporosis, Merck
19. Protonix, $1.8 billion, gastrointestinal reflux disease, Wyeth
20. Vioxx, $1.8 billion, arthritis, Merck
Obviously, you can look for Vioxx to fall off the list next year.
The only thing I'm able to read into this list is that we Americans have high cholesterol and a lot of heartburn. Oh, and we spend a lot on prescriptions. Hummm.
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