Pioglitazone hydrochloride goes cut-price!
Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy, Teva are the happy winners making the first off-patent pioglitazone hydrochloride tablets.
FDA approved Mylan last week, and Ranbaxy and Teva announce they've started production.
Actos, the brand name version produced by Takeda, is one of the more popular treatment drugs for diabetes 2. It's a thiazolidinedione that makes the body more sensitive to insulin -- like Avandia, only without the unfortunate recent regulatory history.
In 2011 FDA warned that Actos is associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer, and continues to caution prescribers and patients on that.
But at least the price of treatment, in an increasingly diabetic America, will be going down.
Not everyone's happy: Watson Pharmaceuticals thought it had a deal for generic pioglitazone, and is suing FDA over the Mylan, Teva, and Ranbaxy decisions.