Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering treatment, remains the best-selling drug in America. But Pfizer, the drug’s maker, is facing renewed competition from biotechs like Amgen that were hardly on the map a decade ago– and renewed threats from cheap generic drugs.That’s the picture from newly released data from IMS Health, a pharmaceutical information and consulting company that independently keeps track of how often medicines are prescribed and how much revenue they are generating. IMS has provided to Forbes a list of the top 20 medicines by U.S. sales.

lipitor	#1 LIPITOR Treats: High cholesterol Pfizer $8.4 billion +8%
zocor	#2 ZOCOR Treats: High cholesterol Merck $4.4 billion -5%
Nexium	#3 NEXIUM Treats: Heartburn AstraZeneca $4.4 billion +15%
Prevacid	#4 PREVACID Treats: Heartburn Abbott & Takeda $3.8 billion -2%
Advair Diskus	#5 ADVAIR DISKUS Treats: Asthma GlaxoSmithKline $3.6 billion +22%
Plavix	#6 PLAVIX Treats: Heart disease Bristol-Myers Squibb & Sanofi-Aventis $3.5 billion +15%
Zoloft	#7 ZOLOFT Treats: Depression Pfizer $3.1 billion -2%
epogen	#8 EPOGEN Treats: Anemia Amgen $3.0 billion -1%
Procrit	#9 PROCRIT Treats: Anemia Johnson & Johnson $3.0 billion -9%
Aranesp	#10 ARANESP Treats: Anemia Amgen $2.8 billion +46%
Enbrel	#11 ENBREL Treats: Rheumatoid arthritis Amgen & Wyeth $2.7 billion +36%
Norvasc	#12 NORVASC Treats: High blood pressure Pfizer $2.6 billion +8%
Seroquel	#13 SEROQUEL Treats: Schizophrenia AstraZeneca $2.6 billion +25%
Effexor xr	#14 EFFEXOR XR Treats: Depression Wyeth $2.6 billion -2%
Zyprexa	#15 ZYPREXA Treats: Schizophrenia Eli Lilly $2.5 billion -16%
Singulair	#16 SINGULAIR Treats: Asthma & Allergies Merck $2.5 billion +14%
Protonix	#17 PROTONIX Treats: Heartburn Wyeth $2.4 billion +0%
Risperdal	#18 RISPERDAL Treats: Schizophrenia Johnson & Johnson $2.3 billion +5%
Neulasta	#19 NEULASTA Treats: Chemotherapy side effects Amgen $2.2 billion +30%
Remicade	#20 REMICADE Treats: Rheumatoid arthritis Johnson & Johnson $2.2 billion +12%

Source: IMS Health, a healthcare information company.

Tags: The Best-Selling Drugs In America, top 20 medicines

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