Maybe Not a Blockbuster, But We'll Take It

Novartis' (NYSE: NVS  ) newest addition, blood pressure medication Tekamlo, isn't going to rocket to the top of the 2020 best seller list, but it's still a nice addition nonetheless.

On Friday, the company announced the Food and Drug Administration approval of the drug, which is a combination of its own Tekturna and amlodipine, which was originally developed by Pfizer (NYSE: PFE  ) as Norvasc, but is now available as a generic. Like metformin for diabetics, drugmakers often add amlodipine to their brand name blood pressure drugs to make it convenient for patients who need multiple drugs to control their blood pressure. In clinical trials, Tekamlo outperformed Tekturna and amlodipine individually.

Getting Tekamlo on the market could help boost sales of Tekturna as well. Doctors might be willing to start with Tekturna knowing that they can escalate to Tekamlo if the first drug isn't sufficient to lower blood pressure.

Novartis can use all the help it can get in the cardiovascular arena. The company sold nearly $3 billion worth of its top-selling blood pressure drug, Diovan, in the first half of the year, but the drug goes off patent in 2012. Tekturna raked in just $190 million over that time frame.

It's unlikely that Tekturna and Tekamlo will ever reach the levels of Diovan considering the increasing numbers of generic blood pressure medications on the market -- big sellers, Merck's (NYSE: MRK  ) Cozaar and GlaxoSmithKline's (NYSE: GSK  ) Coreg, both have generic competition now.

But at this point, Novartis and the rest of the industry are looking for incremental increases and that's just what Tekamlo provides. Four singles is the equivalent of a home run after all.

Toby Shute says you shouldn't follow the leaders, but go with this oil and gas contrarian.