Some in EU to Get Viagra
In Two Weeks, Pfizer Says
By Brandon Mitchener
09/16/98
The Wall Street Journal Europe
Page 8
BRUSSELS -- Pfizer Inc.'s impotence drug, Viagra, will be available in some European Union countries within seven to 10 days, despite the absence of government reimbursement agreements, the company said after the EU approved the drug.
The tiny blue pills are expected to hit the market in Sweden, the Netherlands and the U.K. within two weeks, and in other countries, including Germany, France and Italy, in the middle of next month. Belgium and Greece, which require government price-fixing approval, probably won't see Viagra widely available until December.
Although individual market prices remain to be determined, Victor Micati, a Pfizer Pharmaceuticals executive vice president responsible for Europe, said Viagra prices in Europe will be "comparable to the range in the U.S. -- where Pfizer sells the drug to distributors for $6 to $8.50 a pill -- to eliminate the incentive for parallel imports by gray-market dealers.
Some Europeans already have found ways to get the drug from the U.S. and from Switzerland, which isn't an EU member. Swiss sales, which began in July, have been better than Pfizer expected, suggesting that some of the pills sold in Switzerland may be finding their way into neighboring Italy, Germany and France.
Although he declined to give a specific sales forecast, Mr. Micati said he expects to see "the type of usage we've seen in the United States," where Viagra has broken all previous sales records for pharmaceuticals.
The drug is being produced in France, he said, "at appropriate levels to satisfy the market initially."
At the same time, Mr. Micati admits that the lack of government approval for national health systems to reimburse patients for the cost of the drug creates an "uncertainty factor" that makes long-term sales projections difficult. "There may be patient pressure for reimbursement," he said.
Mr. Micati termed the U.K. decision to ban doctors associated with the National Health Service from prescribing the drug "unfortunate," saying governments in Europe "haven't had the opportunity to really understand the likely patient population for this drug." Predictions that it could cripple ailing national health systems in Britain and Germany are based on "exaggerated projections of financial impact," he said. Britain was among the 15 nations for which the European Commission approved Viagra sales Tuesday.
But U.K. Health Secretary Frank Dobson told BBC radio that British authorities might approve Viagra for reimbursement "after we've had further discussion with the company, maybe got the price down a bit further." Ken Moran, managing director for Pfizer UK, said he was amazed by the government's 11th-hour decision to restrict the drug and by its pricing doubts because he had received a letter confirming that the price of the pill was acceptable to the health department. "I just don't understand where the government is coming from," he said.
The German government, which traditionally had allowed public health authorities to reimburse patients for some impotence treatments, declared in August that it would no longer pay for them -- including Viagra.
The Italian public health system will reimburse impotency patients for penil-implant operations costing as much as $14,000, but is not expected to approve Viagra for reimbursement, according to an Italian urologist who is secretary general of the European Society for Impotence Research.
Pfizer estimates erectile dysfunction afflicts as many as 100 million men world-wide, mostly over age 50
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