{"id":3693,"date":"2016-03-07T21:35:55","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T21:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edrugstore.md\/articles\/?p=3693"},"modified":"2013-12-09T21:48:48","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T21:48:48","slug":"viagra-top-erection-pill-off-patent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/erectile-dysfunction\/viagra\/viagra-top-erection-pill-off-patent\/","title":{"rendered":"How Will Viagra the Top Erection Pill Stay Relevant After It Goes Off-Patent?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> Viagra is one of the most successful pharmaceuticals in human history.\u00a0 Since it became available in 1998, Viagra has sold over $1 billion annually with ease and consists of at least half of the erection issues pharmaceutical market.\u00a0 But for Pfizer, the market is about to get more competitive.<\/p>\n

Pfizer’s patents on Viagra have either already expired, or are going to by the end of 2012.\u00a0 That paves the way for producers of generic drugs to start making their own versions of sildenafil, and compete directly with the name brand product.\u00a0 But this doesn’t mean Viagra sales will dry up…simply that Pfizer has to choose its strategy more carefully.\u00a0 Here’s how it’ll keep Viagra profitable even when sales for erection problems start to droop.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Stick With the Name Brand<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unlike other drugs, such as Prozac, Viagra doesn’t serve a vital health purpose necessarily; after all, nobody needs an erection for health.\u00a0 They just really, really enjoy them.\u00a0 This plays straight to Pfizer’s needs, and in fact ties into their strategy.<\/p>\n

When Cialis and Levitra hit the market, Viagra went from 92% of all erection medication to 50%.\u00a0 Still nothing to sneeze at, but a 42% loss stings any company.\u00a0 Pfizer went on the offensive: while its competitors were recycling its advertising strategy of using famous older men talking about loss of erection issues in advertisements, it emphasized its name brand.<\/p>\n

And that’s really all it needs, for at least some of the market.\u00a0 Sure, you pay more, but you get it from the people who have been making it for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Emphasize the Other Uses<\/strong><\/p>\n

Viagra wasn’t originally developed for erection difficulty; it was being researched as a blood pressure and angina medication.\u00a0 Pfizer simply noticed the high number of erections, presumably documented as awkward conversations with the study participants, and chose to focus on that.<\/p>\n

Viagra has been also found to help with pulmonary edema, a common problem for mountain climbers and others dealing with high altitude situations and, oddly, it’s even shown to cure jet lag, at least in hamsters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It may require some different brand names and marketing, but there’s no reason Pfizer can’t bring Viagra to new markets, and keep at least some of its profits.<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Keep On Selling<\/strong><\/p>\n

The worst case scenario for every pharmaceutical company is what happened to Eli Lilly \"\"<\/a>when Prozac, their revolutionary antidepressant, went off-patent.\u00a0 Within a year, generics had taken over 70% of the market for Prozac, causing them to miss an earnings target and generally wreaking fiscal chaos on them in the late ’90s.<\/p>\n

But Eli Lilly is not only alive, but continuing to make money off of Prozac, both by rebranding it for PMDD treatment as Sarafem, and selling Prozac itself even to this day.\u00a0 True, it’s not the money maker that it was…but it’s still a money maker.\u00a0 And that might be the moral of the story; even with a patent running out, people will always want the original.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Viagra is one of the most successful pharmaceuticals in human history.\u00a0 Since it became available in 1998, Viagra has sold over $1 billion annually with ease and consists of at least half of the erection issues pharmaceutical market.\u00a0 But for Pfizer, the market is about to get more competitive. Pfizer’s patents on Viagra have either […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_autoblog_aioseo_focus_keyphrase":"","_autoblog_aioseo_title":"","_autoblog_aioseo_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-viagra"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t