Viagra receives worldwide support
ELIZABETH NEUS
03/15/99
Gannett News Service
The splash that Viagra made in the United States created a worldwide ripple effect that turned into a tidal wave of sales.
More than 70 countries -- including even Iraq -- have approved use of Viagra since the drug became available in the United States last March, and Pfizer Inc. expects worldwide approval by the end of 2000.
The sole exception will be India, the second-largest country with a population of 960 million. Pfizer does not plan to introduce Viagra there, because the company believes Indian patent protection laws aren't tough enough.
''We won't compete with a low-price generic,'' said Pfizer spokeswoman Mariann Caprino.
International sales account for 13 percent of Viagra 's total 1998 sales -- $105 million out of $788 million. As they did in the United States, men lined up almost immediately in the countries when the drug was put on the market. Great Britain even limited the number of pills it would pay for through its National Health Service, citing high costs.
But even in countries where Viagra wasn't approved, the drug rolled over existing local remedies, thrived in black markets and lured thousands to the United States to buy it legally.
Countless Japanese men flew to Hawaii to procure a prescription, and some even came on special package tours that included prearranged appointments with doctors. A Japanese man was among the earliest of the Viagra -related deaths.
Before the drug was approved in Taiwan, black-market sales outpaced those of traditional, ancient impotence remedies such as Big Hero Pill and Essence of Tyrant.
Traditional practitioners claimed their secret formulas still were better than Viagra , ''but if they're so powerful and convenient, then why all the interest in Viagra ?'' Taiwanese urologist Chen Kuang-kuo said last summer.
Pharmacies along the U.S.-Canadian border reported the bulk of their Viagra sales were to Canadians, who had no access at home to the drug until it was approved March 9. In some stores, Canadians account for 75 percent to 80 percent of Viagra sales, and they drive hundreds of miles for their medicine. They pay for it themselves.
''I can't recall a prescription for a local person in quite some time, but the other day I filled three in a row for people from Canada,'' said Dexter Spaulding, a pharmacist at Swanton Rexall Drugs in Swanton, Vt., six miles from the Canadian border.
Although the family-owned pharmacy and other border stores could lose sales now that Canada has approved Viagra , ''I'm kind of hoping they will,'' Spaulding said. ''It's a long drive for people. We aren't greedy.''
Approval of the drug doesn't necessarily end any furor. In Japan, where Viagra was approved in January, women are livid over the fact that it sailed through the Health Ministry in six months, while the pill had languished in the approval process for nine years. The birth control pill may make it onto the Japanese market this summer.
In Hong Kong, where Viagra was approved in early February, police are arresting people for selling it without a prescription and for inflated prices.
Men in Singapore may be hit with a double financial whammy. Not only do insurance companies there not cover Viagra itself, but some also are arguing they may not even cover treatment for any adverse effects drug. If they die after using Viagra , however, their life insurance still will pay up.
Jordanian doctors and pharmacists in December called for a boycott of U.S. drugs to protest American airstrikes against Iraq but said that the newly approved Viagra would be exempt because it is unique.
Speaking of Iraq, men there may have to wait for their shot at Viagra until international sanctions placed during the gulf war are lifted.
Private companies may import the drug, but the government will not help pay for it because it does not fit into the definition of ''badly needed humanitarian items'' -- the only kind Iraq is permitted to buy under terms of the sanctions.
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