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Biotech / Medical : Pharma News Only (pfe,mrk,wla, sgp, ahp, bmy, lly) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (764)	9/10/1998 9:10:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

09/10 05:22 Pfizer says Viagra to cost UK 50 million pounds LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The anti-impotence drug Viagra will cost Britain's National Health Service only a fraction of the one billion pounds ($1.7 billion) estimated by some newspapers, its manufacturers said on Thursday. Ken Moran, chairman and managing director of Pfizer UK, said the company had applied to the Department of Health to sell the drug at 4.84 pounds a pill. Press speculation had suggested a price of 10 pounds a tablet for the drug. Moran said Viagra was likely to be approved by Britain's health regulators next week. There have been fears that the drugs budget of the state-run National Health Service, which provides mostly free treatment, would be unable to bear the cost of Viagra if it were available on demand instead of requiring a doctor's prescription. But Moran said the predicted bill of one billion pounds was wide of the mark. "This sum has no logical basis and is a vast over-estimate of the likely impact of this new treatment," he said in a statement. "A realistic estimate would suggest that the cost of treatment could reach around 50 million pounds after five years," he added. Moran told BBC radio the Department of Health agreed with Pfizer. "Our estimates and, interestingly enough, their estimates in terms of what the cost would be is less than one tenth of that number, certainly under 100 million pounds -- we believe around 50 million," he said. But Dr Ian Bogle, chairman of the British Medical Association, said he was concerned about the potential financial consequences of introducing the drug. He said he did not want patients with a clinical condition to be denied access to the drug, but ministers would need to lay down prescription criteria. "If it is just made freely available on prescription, the country, I believe, cannot afford it," Bogle said. moneynet.com@NEWS-P1&Index=0&HeadlineURL=../News/NewsHeadlines.asp&DISABLE_FORM=&NAVSVC=News\Company