Firm to Offer Generic Ulcer Drug

Ulcer patients that have long relied on Zantac to ease their pains will soon have a generic alternate on the market at half the price they now pay, Novopharm USA Inc. executives said. A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the generic drug would not violate two Glaxo Wellcome Inc. patents on Zantac, which as the world’s best-selling prescription medicine had sales of $1.63 billion in the United States last year. “For the first time, a generic alternative will be available,” said Bob Gunter, president of Novopharm USA Inc. Gunter said Novopharm, with U.S. headquarters in Schaumburg, Ill., plans to cut in half the $1.60 per tablet price of Zantac. The generic drug, which will simply be called by its medicinal name “Ranitidine Hydrochloride,” is expected to hit pharmacy shelves in July, immediately after North Carolina-based Glaxo’s first patent expires, Gunter said.