From old behemoth Lipitor to new king Humira: Best-selling U.S. drugs over 25 years

Take a look at 25 years' worth of drug sales, and some familiar names pop up: the megablockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor, for one. But you'll also find some drugs that aren't the mass-market successes Lipitor was. Amgen's staple anemia treatment Epogen, for one.

Beyond the drugs themselves, we gleaned some tried-and-true advice for drugs looking to make the top 10 two and a half decades from now. Launch timing, medical need, scientific improvement and marketing efforts all factor into a drug’s success.

With data provided by IQVIA, we ranked the 10 best-selling drugs in the U.S. by the revenue they accumulated from 1992 to 2017. In addition to Lipitor and Epogen, they include the stalwart blood thinner Plavix—long a cash cow for Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi and still a big seller as a generic. And a trio of immunology mainstays are led by their king, Humira, which is predicted to become the first drug ever to pass $20 billion in annual sales.

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