Viagra to Be Introduced in Italy This Week, Newspaper Reports
Bloomberg News
October 13, 1998, 4:12 a.m. ET
Rome, Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Italians will soon be able to
purchase Pfizer Inc.'s impotence treatment drug Viagra, which is
being sold in pharmacies in Milan as of today and will be
available in the rest of the country on Thursday, Italian daily
La Stampa reported. The ministry of health said the blue pill
will cost up to 200,800 lire ($120) for the highest dosage of
100 milligrams, while a standard-dose 4-pill pack will cost
83,000 lire, adding that the pill can only be obtained with a
non-renewable doctor's prescription allowing the purchase of a
maximum of 16 pills, the paper reported. According to La Stampa,
some three million Italians suffer from impotence.
In mid-September, the European Commission, the executive
branch of the European Union, approved the sale and marketing of
Viagra in the 15-nation bloc.
(La Stampa, 10/13, p. 13) (www.lastampa.it)
--Rosanna Maietta in the Rome bureau (3906) 6786 455 with Farah |
