Generics firms take on Merck & Co's Pepcid

Merck & Co has finally lost patent protection on its gastrointestinaldrug Pepcid (famotidine) in the USA, with a string of companies now launching generic equivalents onto the market. In addition to Mylan, which received a tentative approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to market 20mg and 40mg famotidine tablets in February, Teva, IVAX Laboratories and Pharmaceutical Resources' subsidiary Par Pharmaceutical have all indicated they will immediately launch generics. Merck achieved turnover with Pepcid of $569 million in 2000, and launched a new formulation last year, Pepcid Complete (famotidine/calcium carbonate), to help reduce the impact of the patent expiry.