Bloomberg - Pfizer Will Sell More Viagra Even as HMOs Limit Payments
Bloomberg News
April 29, 1998, 12:15 p.m. PT
New York, April 29 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc.'s impotence
pill sales could reach $1 billion in its first full year on the
market even if health plans put strict conditions on paying for
Viagra and men have to buy the drug themselves, analysts said.
The New York Times reported that managed care companies such
as Wellpoint Health Networks and Cigna Healthcare are limiting
payments for the medicine, which reached unprecedented levels of
prescriptions for a new drug when it was introduced this month.
The ease of taking a pill may draw many men to Viagra who
would not have been interested in earlier and less convenient
impotence treatments. It also will attract men who buy the drug
for lifestyle reasons, analysts said.
''They are willing to pay right now and they will be willing
to pay in the future,'' said Hemant Shah, an analyst who covers
the pharmaceuticals industry.
Already, about half of the men who have bought Viagra paid
in cash, said Shah. Eventually, men will pay out of pocket for
about 70 percent of Viagra prescriptions, he said.
Viagra had gotten as many as 46,000 prescriptions a day in
the week ended April 24, according to NDC Health Information
Services, which tracks prescription data.
The surprising strength of demand for the drug led David
Saks, an analyst with Gruntal & Co., to raise his estimates of
sales in the first 12 months to $1 billion from an earlier
estimate of $400 million.
Men will pay for their own Viagra prescriptions just as
people pay for cosmetic surgery and similar medical expenses not
covered by health plans, he said.
''It's a want thing,'' Saks said. ''They'd like to be
reimbursed, but will still buy the drug if they're not.''
Doctors prescribe about 11 pills at a time, said Michael
Krensavage, an analyst with Brown Brothers Harriman. While
initial demand has been strong, there's no way to gauge what the
final level will be.
''It's all pure speculation,'' Krensavage said. ''Nobody
knows what the reuse rate will be.''
Pfizer sells Viagra to wholesalers for about $7 a pill.
Retailers often mark up drugs 25 percent. Viagra prescriptions
are selling for $10 or more, the New York Times reported.
Pfizer got U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to
sell Viagra March 27.
Pfizer fell 3/16 to 113 3/16 in late trading.
--Kerry Dooley in the Princeton newsroom (609) 279-4016/dd |
