Pfizer's Viagra Finds Buyers Around the World: Medical Market
Bloomberg News
June 2, 1998, 12:20 p.m. PT
Pfizer's Viagra Finds Buyers Around the World: Medical Market
Paris, June 2 (Bloomberg) -- ''Viagra. Looking for high
quantities. Who can deliver?''
The bold, black letters at the top of the Paris-based
International Herald Tribune's classified ad section supplied
more evidence that Pfizer Inc.'s new impotence drug is taking the
world by storm.
The blue diamond-shaped pill met with unprecedented demand
when it went on sale in the U.S. last month, with more than a
million prescriptions in the first few weeks.
Outside the U.S., many men aren't waiting for regulators to
act. In Venezuela, shipments of Viagra intended for clinical
trials were stolen from Caracas's main seaport. On the black
market in Israel, Viagra reportedly sells at $30 a pill, triple
its U.S. retail price of $10. In Korea, customs officials seeking
to stem illegal imports require Viagra users entering the country
to sign a declaration that the drug is for their personal use.
''I see people who go to Andorra and Switzerland to get the
pill because it's not available here,'' said Dr. Jean Belaisch, a
urologist in Paris who wrote a book on impotence. Swiss druggists
are ordering Viagra direct from U.S. distributors and selling it
on emergency prescriptions pending government approval.
Viagra can also be found in Andorra, a small country in the
Pyrenees mountains between France from Spain, and San Marino, an
independent enclave in central Italy, Pfizer said.
The drug is such a hit because it's easier to use than the
injections, penile insertions, and vacuum tubes previously
available for treating impotence.
Viagra Sales
Viagra sales could start in France and other European Union
countries by October. An advisory panel to the European Medicines
Evaluation Agency approved the drug, paving the way for the
agency to grant full approval in about three months.
Pfizer stock has doubled over the past year on prospects for
Viagra, hitting a record 121 3/4 on April 21 before slipping to
about 103 in recent trading.
Viagra's highly hyped debut makes it difficult for analysts
to estimate its eventual sales. They expect Viagra sales to top
$1 billion in the drug's first 12 months on the market and to
reach as much as $2 billion in 1999.
The U.S. will likely remain the biggest market for Viagra,
as it is for most of the world's top-selling drugs. The U.S.
accounts for about half of the $4.2 billion in 1997 sales of the
world's biggest drug, Astra AB's ulcer medicine Losec, sold as
Prilosec in the U.S.
By next year, Viagra could have sales of $250 million to
$500 million outside the U.S., said Neil Sweig, an analyst with
Southeast Research Partners.
Closer Look
The drug isn't likely to sell as well abroad, he said. While
some U.S. insurers will pay for limited Viagra prescriptions, few
foreign governments are likely to reimburse the drug, he said. In
India and Argentina, drugs don't have the same patent protection
and rivals will be selling their versions of the drug.
Some countries decided to take a closer look at Viagra after
U.S. regulators said last month that a few Viagra users had died.
Israel's health regulators reportedly ordered doctors there to
halt prescriptions for the drug. Egypt earlier had decided not to
allow imports of Viagra until it was tested for side effects.
Pfizer said the U.S. deaths, originally put at six and later
reduced to four, resulted from improper mixing of Viagra with
heart medicine such as nitroglycerin, or from heart attacks or
strokes in older men.
In the meantime, Viagra has been selling at more than $20 a
pill in Japan, press reports said, where the drug hasn't been
approved yet. Some Japanese men aren't waiting for approval and
are ordering over the Internet.
Official sales of Viagra in Japan, China and Korea could
begin as early as next year, Pfizer said.
France, Germany
In France, Pfizer won't ask the government's health
insurance plan to pay for Viagra, said Dr. Sylvia Cukier, a
company spokeswoman. The German government said state-sponsored
health insurance will reimburse Viagra only in extreme cases
where physical ailments, such as diabetes or paraplegia, cause
impotence.
''Americans are used to having to pay out of pocket,'' said
Hemant Shah, an analyst who follows drug companies. ''No
(insurer) is going to cover it in Europe.''
For that reason, European men may be less likely to use
Viagra, Shah said.
Others disagree, saying demand in Europe likely will match
that in the U.S. and that men will find a way to pay for the
drug. Viagra is likely to be a hit in Nordic countries, which
have an open attitude toward discussing sexual problems, said
Paul Church, a urologist and a faculty member at Harvard Medical
School.
''They'll probably want to dispense it from machines like
gum,'' he said.
--Marthe Fourcade in Paris (011-331 5365-5065) and Kerry Dooley |
