Pfizer's Viagra's New Prescriptions Rise 30%
in Week (Update1)
Bloomberg News
May 12, 1998, 11:15 a.m. PT
Pfizer's Viagra's New Prescriptions Rise 30% in Week (Update1)
(Adds analyst comment, updates share price.)
New York, May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra had 30
percent more new prescriptions in the week ended May 1, as the
first impotence pill on the market builds up its position as one
of the world's best-selling drugs.
New prescriptions for the drug, introduced just over a month
ago, were 269,842 in the week, compared to 207,868 in the
previous week, according to IMS America, which tracks
prescriptions. Refills totaled 16,429, more than double the
amount in the week before.
Viagra, which dominates a market previously featuring
injections and other less convenient therapies, represented 98.3
percent of all new prescriptions written for impotence treatment.
Pfizer stock has risen more than 30 percent since the beginning
of February on hopes for Viagra, pushing the company's market
capitalization higher than that of any other U.S. drugmaker.
''There are going to be a lot of people who want to try it
out and we don't know what level of long-term use to project.''
said Charles Engelberg, an analyst at Americal Securities Inc.
with a ''buy'' rating on Pfizer.
Almost half the prescriptions for the pill are now being
written by primary-care physicians, and a third by urologists,
specialists who treat impotence, IMS said. The opposite was the
case in the first two weeks.
Engelberg said many patients feel more comfortable going to
their primary-care physician, who is more familiar to them and
isn't as likely to give them tests before prescribing the drug.
''You don't have to be a specialist to write a prescription
for this,'' he said.
Almost 53 percent of the prescriptions are being paid for
entirely in cash, with the rest involving third-party coverage,
IMS said.
The New York Times reported the shift to primary-care
doctors in an article this morning.
Viagra sales are likely to top $1 billion in the first 12
months, and may reach as much as $2 billion in 1999, analysts
have estimated. The pace of sales has been unprecedented for a
new drug. New prescriptions jumped 84 percent in the week ended
April 24 from the previous week.
''We've never had a product launch like this in the history
of the drug industry. It's breaking new ground,'' said Engelberg.
Viagra had almost 600,000 prescriptions filled in April, its
first month on the market, NDC Health Information Services, which
tracks sales at pharmacies, said last week.
New York-based Pfizer fell 1/2 to 110 3/8 in midafternoon
trading. |
