LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- "Strong Medicine," Lifetime's longest-running original drama series, won't return for a seventh season the network and producer Sony Pictures Television announced yesterday.

"After 132 episodes, we felt that the show had, as all television programs eventually do, run its course, and it was time to offer viewers another option," the network said in a statement to the press. "['Strong Medicine' is one of the] truly remarkable success stories in cable TV history. We're grateful for all the contributions of executive producers Tammy Ader and Whoopi Goldberg and the cast."

"'Strong Medicine' changed Lifetime and the landscape of cable programming forever," Sony topper Steve Mosko added. "We are so proud of the show."

To date this season "Medicine" has been averaging a solid 2.5 million viewers, a growth of 10% from its average audience last season. No date was given for the series finale, which will likely air early next year.

"Medicine" won't disappear completely from Lifetime's schedule however as the network owns the exclusive rerun rights to all episodes of the series through 2010.

As for Lifetime's post-"Medicine" original series plans, no decision has been made about the fate of fellow Sunday original "Missing" while shooting has been completed on the pilots for two potential new dramas: "The Hunters," about a dysfunctional family of undercover government spies run by the devious matriarch (Kelly Lynch), and "Scarlett," about an Anne Rice-esque New Orleans-based gothic horror writer (Rebecca Gayheart) whose fictional characters mysteriously come to life.