Market availability

[sdpharmd]

How can I find out when a particular product became available?

[diana.papshev]

Unfortunately, there are no good resources in the public domain that would pinpoint when a product became commercially available in the U.S. The FDA approval date (available at Drugs@FDA in the Approval History section for each product [as shown below]) can be used as a proxy; however, some branded and generic products are launched much later than the approval date due to litigation, manufacturing capacity, or simply strategic planning. For instance, oral Hycamtin was approved in October of 2007 but it hasn’t been launched yet. Another example is generic ramipril; the first generic was approved in 2005 but due to litigation with the maker of Altace it was launched more than 2 years later, at the end of 2007.

You might try to contact a specific manufacturer; though sometimes they don’t give you a direct answer either…

[participant1]

I also use Drugs@FDA to check if a product was taken off the market

[diana.papshev]

For those of you who are interested, the image below shows how you can check out Drugs@FDA to see if a product has been discontinued

[Nochmar]

I check a website from the United States Patent and Trademark Office; it's link is: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/dapp/opla/term/156.html

Find the drug you wish to learn about and click the patent number to its left and you see the scanned copy of the letter granting approval or extension of the patent.

Note: I have found the columns showing patent expirations to be not so accurate. It's a place to start though.