Neurontin was introduced by Warner-Lambert in 1994 to help preserve that company's epilepsy franchise.
Neurontin, another Pfizer drug from the same time period, should serve as a reminder of this.
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Pfizer has long said a patent would protect Neurontin until 2017, but generic companies have been undeterred.
But pregabalin, after several regulatory delays, is likely to have broader approval for treating pain than Neurontin does.
Already, Pfizer's sales are flat because of generic competition for products like antibiotic Zithromax and nerve-pain drug Neurontin.
Aaron Kesselheim of Harvard University tracked sales of Neurontin, a drug approved for epilepsy but prescribed for much more.
Several generic companies are trying to bring copycat versions of Neurontin to market.
Originally an epilepsy medication, Neurontin wound up being used mostly for treating other disorders, particularly pain caused by nerve damage.
Lyrica, an improved version of the off-patent Neurontin, was initially delayed for several years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The latest: Unlike Neurontin, Lyrica has been labeled as a controlled substance.
Krensavage says the company's profits may suffer significantly from introductions of rival generic versions of Neurontin, an antiseizure drug, and Augmentin, an antibiotic.
Lyrica was supposed to be a follow-up to Neurontin, an epilepsy drug that eventually hit peak annual sales 30-times greater than initial expectations.
Neurontin, for epilepsy and neuropathic pain, Zithromax, for bacterial infections, Zyrtec, for allergies, and Viagra, for sexual dysfunction, all grew at double-digit rates.
Although Neurontin was originally approved as an epilepsy drug, doctors often prescribed it for pain due to nerve damage from diabetes or other illnesses.
Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ), for instance, has faced investigations and fines related to marketing of its Neurontin.
Generic drug makers are fighting in court to sell their copycat versions of Neurontin, but it's still possible that pregabalin could reach the market first.
But some epilepsy medicines, including Neurontin from Pfizer and Gabitril from Cephalon (nasdaq: CEPH - news - people ), may also help slow wave sleep.
For instance, Pfizer 's (nyse: PFE - news - people ) Neurontin, initially an epilepsy drug, became widely used for pain caused by nerve damage and anxiety.
McKinnell said that the bad results for 2005 were precipitated by the problems with the Cox-2 inhibitors, which have faced safety concerns, and the surprise loss of a patent protecting Neurontin, a blockbuster for epilepsy and neuropathic pain.
Pfizer said that its Lyrica, a follow-up to the blockbuster epilepsy and nerve pain drug Neurontin, has been associated with a few cases of muscle weakness, but that the company is still expecting U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for the long-delayed drug.
Instead, doctors found that Neurontin helped with many other ailments, particularly pain caused by nerve damage due to conditions like shingles and diabetes. (This is called neuropathic pain.) That put Warner-Lambert in a bind, because it could not promote the drug for these unapproved uses.
Indeed, in the past, Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ), the world's biggest drug company, owed much of the sales volume of its epilepsy medicine Neurontin to off-label use for pain and for disorders ranging from panic to bipolar disorder.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision yesterday, ruled that a lower court erred when it refused to allow Aetna to sue Pfizer over what it called a racketeering conspiracy to induce physicians to prescribe Neurontin for off-label uses like treating bipolar disorder.
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