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Pharma & Bio Ingredients
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal confirmed that health care insurer UnitedHealth Group will move Zocor to a reimbursement tier making it cheaper than Teva's generic version of the drug after negotiating lower prices with Merck.
On Tuesday, Sen. Charles Schumer accused Merck of conspiring with health insurance companies to undercut Teva's generic version of Zocor days before the patent expires.
Zocor's product patent expires on Friday. Merck reported Zocor sales of $4.4 billion in 2005, and has forecast sales of $2.3 billion to $2.6 billion in 2006.
In a related move, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. plans to sell a generic version of Zocor and has also started selling a version of Merck's enlarged prostate treatment, Proscar. The patent for Proscar expired Monday, the same day the Food and Drug Administration approved Teva's version of the drug. U.S. sales of Proscar totaled about $406 million in the 12 months ended in March.
