As a harbinger of what could be things to come, average prices of America’s top three ED medications and their generic equivalents began moving downward over the past summer.
Introduction
A hopeful sign has emerged over the summer on the erectile dysfunction drugs front. The average prices of the three most popular brand-name medications, as well as those of their generic equivalents, have begun to trend downward. It’s not always been a dramatic drop in prices, but it hopefully augurs well for the future direction of medication prices in the ED market.
Although relatively recent, the introduction of generic competition into the U.S. market for ED drugs has certainly played a key role in helping to roll average prices somewhat lower or at the very least keep them from creeping higher.
Although relatively limited thus far, generic competition is certain to increase, with the greatest number of new contenders most likely to appear for the most popular ED drugs. As of late 2018-2019, those most popular ED drugs were Viagra and its generic equivalent, sildenafil citrate; Cialis and tadalafil, its generic version; and Levitra and vardenafil hydrochloride.
Top ED Drugs’ Market Shares
In an eye-opening report on the market share of America’s best-selling ED drugs, CNBC.com said in May 2019 that GoodRx.com data showed that Viagra and its generic version dominate the U.S. market for the three most popular ED drugs. Together, Viagra and sildenafil accounted for 65 percent of all top three ED drug prescriptions filled between December 1, 2018, and January 31, 2019.
Coming in a distant second with 30 percent of the ED drug market were Cialis and its generic equivalent, tadalafil. That leaves Levitra and its generic equivalent, vardenafil hydrochloride, with only 5 percent of the market.
Viagra has the advantage of being the first of this new line of oral ED medications, winning approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March 1998. It had the ED medication market to itself for the first five years and perhaps has earned the same iconic status as Coca-Cola and Kleenex, which are sometimes used to represent all the products of their type, if only in name.
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Summer’s Price Trends
While the summer months of 2019 have seen declines in both brand-name and generic equivalents, the biggest declines have generally occurred among the generic versions of these popular ED drugs. This makes sense because it is the generics that are most likely to face direct head-to-head competition when other generics are introduced.
Obviously, the brand-name ED drugs face competition from their generic equivalents, but it’s likely that much of the price-cutting likely to occur has already happened.
Viagra has faced generic competition since December 2017, although it’s been somewhat constrained by the fact that Pfizer’s U.S. patent on Viagra won’t actually expire until April 2020. Teva, which markets the only non-Pfizer-related generic for Viagra, must pay a royalty to Pfizer for the privilege of marketing its generic version in advance of that patent expiration.
First Generics Often Get Exclusivity
The first generic version of a popular brand-name drug, whether it’s for treating ED, asthma, or some other medical disorder, usually gets a period of exclusivity — 180 days most commonly. This means that for that half-year period, that single generic is the only one that can be legally marketed in the United States under FDA regulations.
The Viagra generic situation is a bit different because as previously noted, Pfizer’s U.S. patent on Viagra is still in force and will be for several more months. Thus, Teva has been able to market its generic formulation of Viagra only under the terms of an agreement it struck with Pfizer back in December 2013.
That agreement stipulated that Viagra would allow Teva to market the generic, beginning in December 2017, in return for a licensing fee to be paid by Teva until April 2020. Because Teva’s generic is marketed only at the pleasure of Pfizer and under its terms, it did not and does not enjoy market exclusivity.
Launched at virtually the same time as Teva’s sildenafil citrate, Greenstone LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pfizer, also brought its brand of generic Viagra to market. This gives Pfizer a significant revenue stream that includes its sales of brand-name Viagra, licensing fees from Teva, and a share of the revenues from its subsidiary’s sales of generic Viagra.
Viagra/Sildenafil Prices
Based on data gathered during Secure Medical’s monthly national surveys of ED drug prices, the average price of Viagra has declined from $79.28 per 100-milligram pill in July 2019 to $76.99 in September 2019. While that’s a price drop of just under 3 percent across the three-month period, it’s a positive sign.
Hopefully, that downtrend in these prices will continue, albeit at a slow pace, but could pick up momentum in April 2020 when new generic competition can be expected to begin.
Much more dramatic was the summer decline in the average price for sildenafil citrate, the generic form of Viagra. Prices went from an average of $33.56 per 100-milligram pill in July 2019 to $23.08 in September. That represents a whopping decline of over 31 percent.
Cialis/Tadalafil Prices
As you probably know, Cialis and tadalafil come in higher-strength tablets (10 and 20 milligrams) that are designed to be taken on-demand, as well as lower-strength pills (2.5 and 5 milligrams) to be taken daily. For this article, we focus solely on Cialis on demand. The Secure Medical drug price review covers a total of 18 major drug retailers — 15 conventional and 3 online. Although most of these retailers carry these drugs, a handful may not, and adjustments in our calculations were made accordingly. The average price of Cialis went from $78.06 for a 20-milligram tablet in July to $75.83 in September 2019. This is a drop of almost 2.9 percent across the summer months. The average tadalafil price went from $37.60 in July to $28.67 in September, a drop of nearly 24 percent.
Levitra/Vardenafil Prices
Based on data from the Secure Medical national price survey, the average price of Levitra dropped from $62.98 in July to $56.93 in September 2019. This was a very significant decline of roughly 9.8 percent. It might be speculated that as the lowest selling of the top three ED medications, Levitra is in a position that behooves it to move boldly in terms of pricing. The average price of vardenafil hydrochloride, Levitra’s generic equivalent, fell from $48.88 in July to $20.84 in September 2019, a decline of about 57.4 percent. This was by far the biggest price decrease of all among the top three brand-name ED drugs and their generic versions.
The Insurance Factor
Insurance reimbursement for ED drug purchases has not been much of a factor in the market for ED medications until fairly recently. With the introduction of three generic ED drugs since the end of 2017, that has begun to change, albeit somewhat slowly.
More and more health insurers are including generic Viagra in their formularies, although the degree to which they reimburse varies sharply from one insurer to another. While sildenafil is increasingly showing up in health insurers’ drug formularies, the same cannot be said for the generic equivalents of some of the other ED drugs. That may change in time.
Ordering ED Drugs Online
Many men who use ED medications have found that they can save both time and money by ordering those drugs from eDrugstore.com, a longtime online prescription drug service. Based in Tempe, Arizona, eDrugstore carries all brand-name ED drugs as well as the generic equivalents of Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra.
While eDrugstore’s price-per-pill for some of these drugs might be slightly higher than those of national pharmacy chains, the online supplier builds into its prices a number of added-value services you won’t get elsewhere.
Ordering from eDrugstore spares you the hassle of trips to and from the pharmacy as well as time you might waste while waiting for your prescriptions to be filled. And if you can’t seem to fit a doctor’s visit into your busy schedule or tight budget, eDrugstore has got the answer. It will schedule a complimentary online consultation with a licensed U.S. physician who will authorize a prescription if you’re determined to be an appropriate candidate for the drug.
Orders are filled promptly, packaged discreetly, and sent off free of charge to the destination of your choice. If yours is a first order, eDrugstore will enclose a free pill splitter with your shipment. To learn more, visit eDrugstore’s Erectile Dysfunction page.
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