Like erectile dysfunction E.D.
often called impotence.
It's a little embarrassing to talk about E.D.
Remember this, yeah, That's Bob Dole.
The Republican who faced Bill Clinton for president, talking in a
TV ad about Viagra.
You've probably seen many ads about the drug or heard references
in pop culture.
Like in this scene from the CW's supernatural.
Turns out Harold was stealing the other residents Viagra.
I know...a
real dick move huh?
But back in the late 90s, when the Bob Dole ad first appeared on
TV, talking about treating E.D.
was a pretty big deal.
E.D. affects one in 10 men.
It's an uncomfortable topic for most males and Viagra was the
first non-invasive treatment for it and that was extremely
lucrative for Pfizer.
The pharmaceutical company who developed iconic blue diamond
shaped pill.
In its first quarter in 1998 by Viagra brought in $400 million in
worldwide revenue.
It would later bring in sales of $1.8
billion each year on average worldwide.
Flash forward to 2019 and Pfizer still holds the lead in the
erectile dysfunction market even as competition from generics
erodes Viagra's sales.
That was possible due to several factors including a shift in
Pfizer's business strategy but it hopes to start at the
beginning to explain how Viagra remains on top.
Viagra was originally developed to treat high blood pressure in
adults but it became a hit for males in the bedroom and Pfizer
when it was found to allow greater blood flow to the penis.
Pfizer patented the drug and introduced it to the U.S.
market in 1998 as an E.D.
med.
The drug was widely popular with consumers and even labeled a
wonder pill.
Previous treatments were mostly non oral medications like penile
injection therapy.
You can probably see why that wasn't as popular.
The drug has been credited with opening up a dialogue between men
and their doctors about sexual health.
It kind of improves the conversation and the rapport between men
and their doctors.
It also forces the doctor to acknowledge other aspects of the
men's health like mood, depression, intimacy, relationships,
stress, everything now kind of can lead to erectile disfunction
in its own way.
But Viagra's domination of the E.D.
market always had an expiration date.
Companies typically get a set number of years of exclusive rights
to sell their drug before having to let others make their own
versions.
Pfizer ended up losing exclusive rights to Viagra in late 2017
that brought with it a flood of generic versions.
A generic medicine is the same as a brand name medicine and
dosage safety and effectiveness.
It's also usually much cheaper.
Therefore doctors will typically prescribe a generic medicine
over a brand name when available so you could imagine what
happened to Pfizer.
The following year.
U.S. sales of Viagra suffered declining 73 percent year over
year from nearly $800 million to $217 million.
But Pfizer knew this was coming.
So in late 2017, before it lost exclusive rights the drug maker
said it would produce a generic version of the little blue pill.
The drug was called Sildenafil and was half the cost of Viagra.
This change in strategy spared Pfizer from losing most of its
market share since it could compete in the generic market.
As of 2019 Pfizer's strategy worked.
65 percent of prescriptions filled from late 2018 to the end of
January 2019 were for Viagra or its generic version.
30 percent of prescriptions were for rival Cialis and its generic
Tadalafil.
Levitra and generic Vardenafil came in third at 5 percent of the
market.
I think Viagra has been able to capture a larger or retain a
larger part of the market share than we would see it for another
branded drug for let's say high blood pressure high
cholesterol when generics enter.
But it's also the case that we haven't seen as much generic entry
yet as we will see in the next five to ten years.
And I expect that its position as a market leader would fall.
Other factors also help Pfizer.
For one it's one of the most recognizable brands for E.D.
treatment.
There's also the rise of direct to consumer startups to consider
for example Get Roman is a telemedicine provider that connects
patients to doctors online to offer maximum privacy and
convenience.
They've removed the middleman such as drugstores and have allowed
customers to buy E.D.
meds online.
Pfizer also hopped on this strategy.
It widened the availability of its brand name drug online.
It said it would offer new discounts to make the branded version
of Viagra more accessible to patients.
It even allowed consumers to purchase the medication directly
from its website.
So talking about E.D.
may not be as big of a deal as it was when Bob Dole's ad
appeared and neither is Viagra.