Pantoprazole was discovered by Scientists at Byk Gulden, a subsidiary of Altana; the drug discovery program started in 1980 and produced pantoprazole in 1985 - the compound was actually created by chemists working on scaleup of a different chemical that had been chosen as a development candidate. Byk Gulden partnered with Smith Kline & French in 1984. The compound's development names were BY1029 and SK&F96022. By 1986 the companies had created the sodium salt, pantoprazole sodium sesquihydrate, and determined to develop that as it was more soluble and stable, and was more compatible with excipients used in formulation. It was first marketed in Germany in 1994. Wyeth licensed the US patent from Altana. and obtained marketing approval from the US FDA in 2000 under the trade name Protonix.
Pantoprazole is a proton pump inhibitor drug that inhibits gastric acid secretion. It works on gastric parietal cells to irreversibly inhibit (H+/K+)-ATPase function and suppress the production of gastric acid. It was first sold in 1994 in Germany and became available as a generic medication in 2010.
In 2004 worldwide sales of the drug were $3.65 billion, about half of which were in the US.
In 2007 Altana's drug Business was acquired by Nycomed. Nycomed was in turn acquired by Takeda in 2011 and Wyeth was acquired by Pfizer in 2009.
The patent protecting the drug was set to expire in 2010, but Teva Pharmaceutical filed an ANDA in 2007, and Wyeth and Nycomed sued Teva for patent infringement, but Teva decided to launch its generic drug "at risk" that year, before the patent had been invalidated. Wyeth launched an authorized generic in 2008. Pfizer and Takeda's patent exclusivity expired in 2010, and an administrative exclusivity they had for pediatric use expired in January 2011, and full generic competition began. The litigation between Teva and Pfizer/Takeda was settled in 2013, with Teva paying the patent holders $2.15 billion in damages for its early launch.
As of 2017, the drug was marketed under many brands worldwide, including as a combination drug with domperidone, a combination with itopride, in combination with both clarithromycin and amoxicillin, in combination with levosulpiride, and in combination with naproxen.
