Viagra to become available in a less expensive generic form as early as 2017

Fifteen years after Pfizer’s Viagra changed the sexual equation for older men, the impotence drug is set to become available in a less expensive generic form as early as 2017.

Pfizer's little blue pills, which generally cost about $15 each, replaced treatment that included penile injections, pumps and surgery. It will be produced generically, probably for a far lower cost, after Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries reached a legal settlement to sell a copy of the drug, whose chemical name is sildenafil citrate, more than two years earlier than expected. More than 18 million Americans older than age 20 suffer from erectile dysfunction, according to Johns Hopkins University's School of Public Health.

Viagra, the first of three medicines to take on the issue, has been one of the best-known pills sold by Pfizer, the world's biggest drugmaker, generating $2.05 billion in 2012, the most ever. "This blue pill changed the way we practiced medicine," said David Samadi, the chairman of urology at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital. This year, Pfizer began selling the blue pill through a company-sponsored website to combat counterfeit versions sold online. Under a settlement announced yesterday, Teva, the world's largest generic-drug maker, can enter the market on December 11th, 2017, and will pay patent royalties through the expiration of the Viagra patent in April 2020, New York-based Pfizer said.

Other terms weren’t disclosed, and Teva already sells generic versions of the drug in some European countries. Pfizer shares rose less than 1 per cent to $30.22 at 9.39am New York time. The stock has gained 19 per cent in the last 12 months as of yesterday.

The drug was an accident. Pfizer first started looking at sildenafil citrate to treat high blood pressure and angina. During testing, though, patients developed erections. The patent, issued in 2002, is for use of the compound to treat impotence. - (Bloomberg)