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To: Anthony Wong who wrote (319)	6/15/1998 6:20:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

[Scripts!]Pfizer's Viagra Sales Rebound After Slipping on Death Reports Bloomberg News June 15, 1998, 5:21 p.m. ET Pfizer's Viagra Sales Rebound After Slipping on Death Reports New York, June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra sales rose 21 percent in the week ended June 5, rebounding after a May decline in sales of the first pill to treat impotence, said IMS Health, which surveys pharmacists about drug sales. Viagra sales increased to 255,908 prescriptions in the week ended June 5 from 210,857 in the week ended May 29. Viagra sales had reached a high of 303,424 prescriptions filled in the week ended May 8 before U.S. regulators reported the deaths of several Viagra users. The drug hasn't been found to be the direct cause of the deaths. Viagra became one of the best-selling U.S. drugs within weeks of its April introduction. More than 1.1 prescriptions were filled in May alone. The blue diamond-shaped pill is a more convenient treatment that rival products, such as injections. Viagra sales were expected to rebound after slowing in late May when the Memorial Day holiday shut many doctors' offices. ''It shows there is staying power to this product,'' said James Keeney, an analyst with ABN Amro, who has a ''buy'' rating on Pfizer. Pfizer, a New York-based drugmaker with laboratories in Connecticut, fell 1 5/16 to 108. Pfizer hit a record high of 121 3/4 on April 21 as Viagra's early sales passed most analysts' estimates. The drug was introduced in the U.S. in early April. Viagra sales are expected to top $1 billion in its first 12 months on the market. Pfizer could start sales in the European Union later this year. Analysts have said it will be difficult to estimate Viagra's annual sales until they have seen at least three month's worth of sales. They are trying to gauge how many men will become regular users of the drug and how many will try it only once or twice. In the week ended June 5, Viagra refills rose 28 percent to 63,323 prescriptions from 49,452. IMS Health is a unit of Westport, Connecticut-based Cognizant Corp. --Kerry Dooley in the Princeton newsroom (609) 279-4016/esk

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (319)	6/15/1998 6:33:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1722

German minister against Viagra on prescription Monday June 15, 4:44 pm Eastern Time BONN, June 15 (Reuters) - German Health Minister Horst Seehofer said on Monday he was against the anti-impotence drug Viagra being available on prescription in Germany. ''It would cost the health system a double-digit amount of billions of marks,'' he told journalists in Bonn. Only in cases where a patient was known to be suffering from a specific illness could doctors prescribe it, he added. Otherwise men complaining of potency problems would have to pay for it themselves. Seehofer, answering questions after a news conference on another subject, said he expected authorities to approve distribution of the drug formally in Germany by September. Separately, the news magazine Focus said Germany's main grouping of doctors and health funds was also against prescriptions for the drug. It quoted the Federal Committee of Doctors and Health Funds as estimating that if 7.5 million German men with potency problems took two of the Viagra pills a week under prescription, it would add up to 15 billion marks in extra costs for the health system annually. German doctors and health funds determine in the first instance whether a drug can be registered as fit to be prescribed. If they make no decision, the German parliament can be called in to make a ruling. In the United States, some 1.7 million prescriptions have been written for the drug, sold by U.S. concern Pfizer Inc (PFE - news), since it was approved in late March. Citing unnamed legal experts, Focus said that banning Viagra by prescription could be risky for Seehofer because it could bring a flood of court appeals by users demanding reimbursement, some of which could be successful.