Pfizer is one of the first pharmaceutical makers to sell directly to customers.
Through an arrangement with CVS, patients in the US who have valid prescriptions for Viagra can now fill their order directly with Pfizer through their website.
While patients purchasing Viagra from Pfizer still need a doctor’s prescription, they are spared from having to go to the pharmacy counter to have their prescription filled, a prospect that makes many men uncomfortable.
Why Is Pfizer Taking This Action?
Viagra is widely considered to be the most counterfeited drug of all time. Soon after it arrived on the market in 1998, doctors’ prescriptions for Viagra skyrocketed. At the same time, a black market grew just as rapidly. As internet adoption increased, legitimate online pharmacies began selling Viagra, and so did illegitimate pharmacies. Though Viagra brings in billions of dollars a year to Pfizer, the company loses out on hundreds of millions of dollars in sales each year to black market sources of real or counterfeit Viagra. These financial losses, the very real dangers of counterfeit drugs, and the realization that a lot of men are uncomfortable handing over a prescription for Viagra to their local pharmacist helped lead Pfizer to their recent decision about selling Viagra directly to consumers.
Possible Implications for Other Drug Manufacturers
If Pfizer’s new sales paradigm is successful, and there is every reason to expect it will be, it’s possible that other drug manufacturers may develop similar programs, particularly for prescription drugs associated with social stigmas, like weight loss drugs. Currently, erectile dysfunction medications for men and weight loss drugs for women are the top drugs that people seek out online.
Pfizer wasn’t the first big pharma player to sell directly to consumers, however. Though it hasn’t received nearly as much media attention, drug giant AstraZenica already has an arrangement with a third party pharmacy to sell the breast cancer drug Arimidex directly to patients. If successful, Pfizer’s move could represent a tipping point in direct sales to consumers from drug manufacturers.
If Pfizer is successful, it could change how millions obtain prescription drugs.Why eDrugstore Supports Pfizer
eDrugstore sells only genuine Viagra made by Pfizer, by prescription only. While Pfizer’s move could be taken as a threat to eDrugstore’s bottom line, eDrugstore supports Pfizer in its new endeavor.
Every year, the word “Viagra” appears in tens of millions of internet searches, often in search phrases like “buy Viagra,” or “buy Viagra online.” People who search on these terms are usually bombarded with results that divert them to the counterfeit Viagra market, which is huge and dangerous. Shady Viagra peddlers have also found ways to game internet search engines, often pushing legitimate online sources off the first page of results.
Though Google has taken steps to mitigate this problem, it’s a constant battle. Victor Clavelli, a Pfizer marketing executive told The New York Times, “Our goal is to just make sure those patients actually get the real Viagra.” eDrugstore couldn’t agree more.
Patient Safety Is the Bottom Line
In 2011 Pfizer ordered “Viagra” from 22 websites that appeared at the top of the search results for “buy Viagra” and found that 80% of the products received were counterfeit. Fake drugs that contained any of the drug’s active ingredient, sildenafil citrate, only contained 30 to 50% as much as real Viagra. Furthermore, counterfeit Viagra has been found to contain fillers, including paint, printer ink, and wallboard. The FDA regularly goes after counterfeit drug sites and shuts them down, but new sites always pop back up. Pfizer and eDrugstore hope that Pfizer’s decision to sell Viagra directly to patients will make these counterfeit sites less lucrative and less common online.
eDrugstore.com is an online medical facilitator that sells genuine Viagra as well as other name brand drugs for erectile dysfunction. eDrugstore always has and always will only dispense real prescription drugs, and gives patients the tools they need to confirm that what they are receiving is the real product.
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