Pfizer sues over Viagra generic
pharmafile | March 18, 2014 | News story | Sales and Marketing | ED, FDA, Pfizer, Sildenafil, torrent, viagra
Pfizer is suing Torrent Pharmaceuticals in order to stop it selling copycat versions on its big-selling erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra.
The US firm, still the world’s largest drugmaker, is looking to protect its patent in the US that is in effect until October 2019.
But Indian-based Torrent is seeking approval from the FDA for a generic form of Viagra (sildenafil) before Pfizer’s US patent expires, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan this week.
Pfizer says that it is seeking an order permanently barring Torrent, its officers, agents and employees from “making, using, selling, selling, marketing, distributing or importing” the allegedly infringing drug.
Pfizer reported $1.88 billion in Viagra sales for 2013, or 3.6% of total revenue, according to its recent full year results. Pfizer has sued other drug companies in the same court over similar claims.
Although the firm has a US patent on the medicine until the end of the decade, Pfizer has succumbed to generic pressure in Europe. In June last year the ED pill lost its patent in the UK, which saw the price of the drug reduced from £10 to around £1.
Generic firms such as Teva along with 19 other companies launched their own forms of sildenafil. But to help combat this competition Pfizer propelled its own cheaper brand named ‘Sildenafil Pfizer’ into the marketplace, to avoid being outdone by competitors.
The company said men would still need a prescription to purchase the drug on Viagra.com, but would not need to see a pharmacist.
Jonathan Emms, the company’s UK managing director and soon-to-be new ABPI president, says Viagra would continue to sell because most people asked for the medicine by name.
The impotence treatment has been one of the world’s bestselling drugs, with sales reaching $2 billion in 2012, before losing protection in Europe. But around half of this revenue has always come from the US, meaning any generic threat there could hit the company hard.
Pfizer announced in December that it has reached a deal with Israeli generic drugmaker Teva that will see it market a generic version of Viagra in the US from December 2017, or earlier under certain circumstances.
The drug was first launched 15 years ago as the first treatment of its kind for ED, and was discovered at Pfizer’s former European R&D headquarters in Sandwich, Kent.
Since then a number of other drugs for the condition have become available, including Lilly’s Cialis and GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer’s Levitra, and more recently Vivus’ drug Stendra.
Ben Adams
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