Viagra patent expires in China – Drug makers scramble to release cheap generics

The quality of these new products may be open to question, but the recent expiry of the Chinese patent for erectile dysfunction (ED) drug Viagra has led to a rush of pharmaceutical companies applying to make their own cheaper generic version of Pfizer’s hugely popular anti-impotence treatment for release in China.

It was recently disclosed that the Viagra patent had expired in China on May 12, almost a year after the UK patent had similarly ended for the ‘little blue pill’, and something which led to Medical Specialists™ Pharmacy offering fantastic bargains on UK-produced inexpensive generic versions of Viagra.

For example, Sildenafil Teva and Sildenafil Actavis were initially introduced into Medical Specialists’™ extensive ED medication range, before even cheaper generic sildenafil was then joined with these last month and resulting in a surge in demand.

It is believed that over a dozen drug makers in China have applied to the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) to try and have their own generic versions of Viagra approved for release, with sources claiming many of these actually first began the process around two years ago.

The stigma around erectile dysfunction has been slowly eroded in the 16 years since Pfizer’s Viagra burst onto the scene and more men are now willing to come forward to trusted sources like Medical Specialists™ and seek help. Finally, ED is widely accepted as a genuine health problem that can lead to catastrophic consequences, such as loss of self-esteem, anxiety and even relationship difficulties.
In China alone, the market for ED drugs is now worth an estimated 60 billion Yuan (roughly £5.65 billion) each year.

Also available in China are two of the other most commonly prescribed ED medications – Eli Lilly’s Cialis and Bayer’s Levitra, but Viagra has proved to be the most popular, comprising of over half (58%) of the total sales for ED drugs across 27 major cities in the country last year.

Pfizer China have confirmed they have no immediate plans to release a low-cost version of Viagra regardless of the increase in competition they face.

“For any research-based drug makers, the expiration of a drug patent is a common happening and does not means the end of the world for a product,” Xi Qing, communications director at Pfizer China, said, clearly confident about Viagra keeping a good share of the market in the country.

However, In China about 90% of drugs are generic and it is a market expected to reach 500 billion Yuan by next year. Back in 2011 Pfizer also lost the patent for its money making blockbuster drug Lipitor, which is a commonly prescribed medication for the treatment of high cholesterol.

Lipitor (atorvastatin) brought in staggering revenues for Pfizer that totalled billions of dollars, but that all changed when the patent expired and sales of the branded drug took a serious plunge, and a similar scenario could now happen for Viagra in China.