Pfizer Inc. Wants to Sell Lipitor Over the Counter

Pfizer is hoping to milk even more dollars from its blockbuster Lipitor by introducing an over-the-counter version of the cholesterol-lowering drug, the WSJ reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Whether Pfizer can get the FDA to swallow an OTC statin is another matter entirely. The WSJ reports the company would first need to conduct research demonstrating consumers could follow instructions and properly take an OTC iteration of Lipitor. (That wouldn’t happen before patent protection for the prescription drug expires in November.) Pfizer spokesman MacKay Jimeson tells us in an email that the company has “strategic plans in place for Lipitor’s loss of exclusivity and will comment no further at this time.”