Green light for 150mg Wellbutrin generics

Final US approval for generic forms of the 150mg version of UK drug giant GlaxoSmithKline's Wellbutrin (buprion HCL) has been announced. Teva, Eon Laboratories and Watson simultaneously stated that they would begin shipping the drug shortly.

A report by broker Nexis Bleichroeder notes that, in 2004, GSK will have secured nearly one-quarter of annual sales of its antidepressant, Wellbutrin SR. Early this year, Eon Labs commenced shipping of the bupropion 100mg formulation (Marketletter January 26), but this was not of major consequence to GSK as this dose accounted for a relatively low percentage of its total Wellbutrin sales (around 11% ).

However, this is not the case with the 150mg dose, which actually represents one-half of total business for this franchise. Therefore, the battle is now beginning in earnest for GSK, which is likely to see a significant commercial impact from the generic versions of this dose, says Nexis.