When do the patents on proscar expire? (They're the same drug, labeled
for different uses. I suspect their patents expire at different
times.)

Hello gremlin-ga,

The patents on Propecia and Proscar expire at various times, depending
on whether the patent involves the substance itself, the process for
making it, or methods of using it.

The expiration dates are listed under "finasteride" on page 30 of this
document:

"Prescription and OTC Drug Product Patent and Exclusivity Data"
(addendum to Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence
Evaluations 23rd Edition)
Food and Drug Administration
http://www.fda.gov/cder/orange/23bookpub.pdf

The codes listed in that document -- in particular the use codes
starting with "U" -- are explained here:

"Patent and Exclusivity Terms" (addendum to Approved Drug Products
with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations 23rd Edition)
Food and Drug Administration
http://www.fda.gov/cder/orange/patex.htm

You can see each patent by entering the patent number on this page:

"US Patent Full-Text Database Number Search"
United States Patent and Trademark Office
http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/srchnum.htm

I hope that this information is helpful.


Search strategy:

Searched on Google for:

propecia proscar finasteride "patent expires"

To find current the "Orange Book", went to the address:

http://www.fda.gov/cder/orange/