Clinical equivalence of proprietary and generic atorvastatin in lipid clinic patients

The loss of patent protection for proprietary statins offers affordability advantages to payers, but some clinicians still question the efficacy of generic formulations in real-world clinical applications.

In this retrospective cohort study, we examined the effects of generic atorvastatin substitution on relevant biochemical parameters in 85 dyslipidemic patients who had been previously maintained on stable doses of proprietary atorvastatin from 2009 to 2011. For comparison, we studied 143 patients who were continuously prescribed stable doses of rosuvastatin, which was only available in its proprietary formulation over the same time period.

We found that substitution of generic for proprietary atorvastatin was not associated with significant changes in plasma levels of total or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or triglycerides, but was associated with a small but significant increase in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Plasma levels of aspartate aminotransferase and creatine kinase were also unchanged. Additionally, the changeover to generic atorvastatin was not associated with increased switching to another statin or more frequent changes in other lipid-lowering medications compared with the proprietary rosuvastatin group.

Substituting generic for proprietary atorvastatin in lipid clinic patients was not associated with significant changes in efficacy, adverse events, or patient management.