Up to nine pharmaceutical companies, Sandoz (a subsidiary of Novartis), QuimPharma, Teva, Normon, Mylan, Stada, Actavis, Infamed and Kern Pharma already compete in Spain with the American multinational Pfizer and its flagship drug Viagra, after the medicine lost its patent in our country on June 21. There are another ten copies authorized by the Ministry of Health for sale, but they are not yet on the market.
These laboratories have put authorized copies of sildenafil on the market, the active principle of the famous blue pill, and they hope to obtain at a cheaper price -in most cases 50 percent- part of a market that has sales in Spain of about 120 million euros. Specifically, last year there were 117.5 million sales in the Spanish market of prescription drugs to treat male sexual impotence.
The three big brands -Cialis, Viagra and Levitra- that market different active ingredients under patent that are not financed by the National Health System shared almost the entire cake by billing 110.2 million euros and selling 1.8 million packages in the last twelve months, according to April data from the consulting firm IMS Health.
Since 2009, the leader in sales in Spain is not Viagra, but the molecule that Lilly manufactures under the Cialis brand. Despite this competition, the blue pill continues to bring great benefits to Pfizer, which had a turnover of 35.5 million euros in Spain, compared to 53 million for Cialis, and that in the world reached sales of 2,051 million dollars in 2012 .
Half-price
One of the first laboratories to announce the launch of a generic Viagra in Spain was Normon. The generic company has advanced that the box of 4 sildenafil tablets will cost 28 euros and that of 8 tablets 53, which represents a price below half of the original Pfizer. In addition, it will launch a single-dose format, at 7.95 euros. Another pharmaceutical company that has also announced generic Viagra is Sandoz, a generic subsidiary of the Novartis group, which sells a box of 4 tablets of the Viagra copy at 25 euros and 8 at 46 euros.
The original Pfizer pill is priced at 60 euros for a box of 4 tablets and 112 euros for a box of 8 tablets.
The American multinational has decided not to market its own generic version in Spain, as it will do in France or Belgium, among other countries. The company has decided to present battle with its own brand to the twenty authorized copies of sildenafil in Spain, the active ingredient of the blue pill.
In this way, it will rely on the prestige of Viagra to ensure men with erectile dysfunction “continuous access to this medication that they already know and trust”, as explained by Vicente Morales, director of the company’s Legal Unit in Spain.
Copy attempts in 2009
The company is aware that its revenue from Viagra will be rapidly affected. It already happened in 2009, when the generic drug industry challenged the commercial patent for sildenafil ahead of time and seven companies came to market generic versions authorized by the Spanish Medicines Agency itself.
The Mercantile Court number 7 of Barcelona issued an order in February 2012 and ordered the suspension of the manufacture, import to Spain, possession or marketing of sildenafil to fifteen manufacturers for violating the industrial property rights of the North American Pfizer.
But the impact of competition on Viagra sales was resounding, going from billing 44 million in 2009 to 29 million in 2011.
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