Generic Zocor - Simvastatin

With a total nearly $5 billion, Lipitor, a cholesterol-reducing drug, ranked first in terms of total spending on prescription medicines by adults ages 18 to 64 in 2004, and another cholesterol-fighting drug, Zocor, ranked fourth at $2.3 billion, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Rounding out the top five prescribed drugs for adults were second- and third-ranked Nexium ($2.7 billion) and Prevacid ($2.4 billion) - proton-pump inhibitor drugs that reduce stomach acid — and Zoloft, an antidepressant ($1.9 billion), which ranked fifth.

AHRQ data also found that:
For people age 65 and older, Lipitor and Zocor ranked first and second in total spending ($4.35 billion and $2.4 billion, respectively), followed by Plavix, an antiplatlet drug ($1.7 billion), Norvasc, a calcium channel blocker that can be used to treat high blood pressure and certain kinds of chest pain, such as angina ($1.5 billion), and Nexium ($1.5 billion).
For children age 17 and under, the top five drugs when ranked by total expenses were Singulair ($680 million), a medication that can be used to control asthma, ranked first; Concerta ($490 million), Strattera ($430 million), and Adderall ($410 million), drugs commonly used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, ranked second, third and fifth, respectively; and Zyrtec, an antihistamine ($420 million), ranked fourth.

AHRQ, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, works to enhance the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care in the United States. The data in this AHRQ News and Numbers summary are taken from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a highly detailed source of information on the health services used by Americans, the frequency with which they use them, the cost of those services, and how they are paid. More information is available in The Top Five Outpatient Prescription Drugs Ranked by the Expense for Children, Adults, and the Elderly, 2004

Genomas, a biomedical company advancing DNA-guided medicine and personalized healthcare, has announced the award of a Fast-Track Phase I-II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant totaling $1.2 million.

The grant, entitled “DNA Diagnostic System for Statin Safety and Efficacy,” was awarded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).

Statins are the most prescribed drugs in the world. Drugs in this class include atorvastatin (Lipitor(R)), rosuvastatin (Crestor(R)), and simvastatin (Zocor(R) and generic formulations). Statin-induced neuro-myopathy (SINM) is the main clinically relevant safety risk of these drugs. In medical practice, SINM presents as a constellation of nerve and muscle side effects. Clinical symptoms of SINM include muscle aches (myalgia), cramps, weakness, and muscle injury (myositis, monitored in serum by elevation of certain enzymes). Statin usage is ultimately limited by these side effects which are disabling to 10% of patients, require alteration of therapy, burden healthcare with management costs, and reduce compliance.

Under the SBIR program, Genomas will integrate the clinical expertise of its strategic partner, Hartford Hospital, with the company’s proprietary physiogenomics technology to develop DNA-guided clinical management systems that predict and compare an individual’s risk of SINM from statin medications. PhyzioType(TM) Clinical Management Systems are composed of an ensemble of inherited DNA markers genotyped by arrays and interpreted by a biomathematical algorithm in order to convey to physicians predicted comparisons of side effect risk among drugs for the individual patient.

In announcing the award, Gualberto Ruano, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO of Genomas commented: “By interfacing complex patient reactions to statin drugs with physiogenomics, we can translate the variability observed in medical practice into clinical decision support for DNA-guided medicine. Our revolutionary SINM PhyzioType(TM) System enables the diagnosis and drug-specific prediction of statin neuromuscular side effects addressing a high impact medical need in cardiovascular medicine and will be significantly advanced with this major SBIR award.”

The research leading to this award has been published in the renowned journal Muscle & Nerve in September 2007. Researchers at the Division of Cardiology of Hartford Hospital and at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California San Francisco, were co-authors of the publication and are co-investigators in the grant, which also includes the Rogosin Institute.

To date, Genomas has secured $3.1 million of NIH SBIR funding for PhyzioType(TM) product development. These programs have been anchored by the novel partnership with Hartford Hospital for translating DNA-guided medicine into clinical practice.

The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it would allow Merck & Company to label Zocor as the first anti-cholesterol drug that reduces deaths. A five-year study of 4,400 coronary patients found that Zocor lowered deaths from heart disease by 42 percent and significantly reduced nonfatal heart attacks and the need for rehospitalization. Wall Street has expected the decision, and Merck’s shares fell 25 cents, to $49.375, on the New York Stock Exchange. Some 900,000 Americans take Zocor, which has worldwide sales of $1 billion a year.