Generic Brands

The Food and Drug Administration, escalating its campaign against generic drugs that it believes have been marketed improperly, announced Monday that it will withdraw approval of the last remaining generic equivalent of Dyazide, a leading blood pressure drug. The FDA said it could no longer be certain that Bolar Pharmaceutical's generic drug, one of the nation's best-selling generics, is precisely equivalent to Dyazide.

The Food and Drug Administration told members of Congress on Monday that investigators gave a clean bill of health to only two of a dozen generic drug manufacturers specially targeted for investigation.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Santa Monica-based American BioScience Inc. were given six days to try to stop a federal judge's order that could clear the way for a generic version of Bristol-Myers' breast cancer drug Taxol. U.S. District Judge William Matthew Byrne Jr. in Los Angeles said he would delay until Wednesday an order he issued this week that would force Bristol-Myers to remove American BioScience's Taxol-related patent from the Food and Drug Administration's list of valid patents.

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. said it will temporarily stop requiring the use of generic parts after a jury deciding an Illinois class action ordered it to pay customers $456 million, saying State Farm broke a pledge to pay for replacement parts of "like kind and quality." State Farm has defended the less-costly replacements as a way to cut insurance premiums. But it said Thursday that it wants to avoid "customer confusion" that could result from "misinformation" linked to the suit.

A federal judge has given preliminary approval to a $100-million settlement by generic drug maker Mylan Laboratories Inc. and three other companies accused of fixing prices of anti-anxiety drugs. The settlement, approved Friday by U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan in Washington, covers consumers and government agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Illinois' biggest health insurer will start paying pharmacists every time they persuade a customer to switch from a brand-name drug to a generic. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois saw its drug costs rise 26% last year, to $701 million. Beginning in January, the insurer will pay $1 for each changed prescription. Generic drugs generally cost much less than brand-name versions.

Three drug makers struck a deal to market a cheaper generic version of the heartburn drug Prilosec in the United States, ending AstraZeneca's monopoly of the drug and starting a price war over the $6-billion-a-year medicine. Andrx Corp., Schwarz Pharma and Merck signed the multiyear deal to share profits from Schwarz's generic version, which has received final approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

A U.S. district judge declined to issue a preliminary injunction blocking two companies from exclusively selling their generic versions of Merck & Co.'s Zocor cholesterol drug. Novartis' Sandoz unit had sought a temporary restraining order against generic manufacturers Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s Ivax and Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. U.S.

Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. won tentative U.S. regulatory approval to sell copies of Merck & Co.'s Zocor cholesterol drug, and said sales might start in June. Still at issue is the ability of Teva, the world's biggest generic drug maker, to sell the pills exclusively for six months under a U.S. rule designed to promote cheaper generics.

The nation's largest pharmacy benefits manager announced Friday that it was distributing more generic drugs than brand-name counterparts, a sign that costly brand-name prescription medicines may be losing their grip on the market, leading to lower drug costs for consumers. The trend is significant because even more generic prescription drugs are expected to hit the market in the near future.