History
Pregabalin was invented by medicinal chemist Richard Bruce Silverman at Northwestern University in the United States. The drug was approved in the European Union in 2004. Pregabalin received U.S. FDA approval for use in treating epilepsy, diabetic neuropathic pain, and post-herpetic neuralgia in December 2004, and appeared on the U.S. market in fall 2005.
In June 2007, the FDA approved Lyrica as a treatment for fibromyalgia. It was the first drug to be approved for this indication and remained the only one until duloxetine (Cymbalta) gained FDA approval for the treatment of fibromyalgia in June 2008.
The patent for Lyrica currently expires in March 2018 (Silverman, R. B.; Andruszkiewicz, R. U. S. Pat. 6,197,819 B1 (March 6, 2001) "Gamma Amino Butyric Acid Analogs and Optical Isomers."). This is the earliest possible date that a generic version of Lyrica could become available. However, there are other circumstances that could come up to extend the exclusivity period of Lyrica beyond 2018. These circumstances could include things such as lawsuits or other patents for specific Lyrica uses. Once Lyrica goes off patent, there may be several companies that manufacture a generic pregabalin drug.
Read more about this topic: Pregabalin
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