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.
