Sunday, June 23, 2013

60p 'Viagra' price war: As patent ends, companies queue up to sell copycat version of impotence drug

  • Pfizer patent expires today, meaning that other companies can produce their own version of the sex-enhancing drug
  • Industry experts say the market could be flooded with cheaper versions
  • The current cost to the NHS is £6 per tablet and it is difficult to be prescribed the medication unless suffering with serious health condition
  • Expiration of patent will see Pfizer launching its own cheaper brand





  • Buying Viagra could become much cheaper from midnight tonight, as the UK patent for the drug expires
    Buying Viagra could become much cheaper from midnight tonight, as the UK patent for the drug expires
    A cut-price battle for the £1.5billion market in Viagra begins today after the impotence drug’s patent expired at midnight last night.
    With prices predicted to tumble quickly to as little as a tenth of the current rate, men in need of a boost in the bedroom could be able to obtain the little blue pills for as little as 60p each.
    Until now, those who do not qualify for an NHS prescription have faced paying up to £6 per tablet. 
    But while expiration of the patent will make the drug more affordable, it will not make it more easily available, because men will still need a prescription –private or NHS – to get it.
    Around a dozen companies are expected to market generic, or non-branded, versions of the impotence drug from today. And at least ten more have also made tablets and have permission to sell them.
    Pfizer, which developed Viagra at its plant in Sandwich in Kent, has held the patent since 1990 and sold the drug at a price that allowed it to recoup the money spent on development. 
    Worldwide, sales are worth almost £1.5billion a year. It will be launching a non-branded version today.
    Among its competitors will be Teva, a manufacturer of generic medicines that is the biggest supplier of drugs to the NHS and whose products range from cold treatments to cancer drugs.
    A spokesman for the West Yorkshire-based firm said: ‘We fight cat and dog with other companies to be the first on the market when a patent expires.’
    Viagra is a blue, diamond-shaped pill and while the copycats will come in different shapes, sizes and colours they will all contain the same active ingredient – a substance called sildenafil.
    Most will simply be marketed under that name after satisfying drug regulators that they work as well as the real thing.
    Other versions of the blue pill, which will not be available under the same brand name, are predicted to be marketed from tomorrow for as little as 60p per tablet
    Other versions of the blue pill, which will not be available under the same brand name, are predicted to be marketed from tomorrow for as little as 60p per tablet
    Cheaper copycat versions will provide enormous savings to the NHS, which spends more than £40million a year on the medicine.
    Among patients, the biggest winners will be those who don’t qualify for pills on the NHS – the 150,000 or so of the 750,000 Britons who take Viagra each year.
    They currently pay around £24 for four tablets obtained with a private prescription. They are being urged by Paul Fleming, of the British Generic Manufacturers Association, to ensure that their doctor makes the prescription out for sildenafil.
     

    ‘It is those patients who will directly benefit from the price fall,’ he said. ‘We’d expect the dramatic fall to feed its way through to the private market.’
    The NHS currently prescribes Viagra only to men with underlying health problems, such as diabetes or prostate cancer. In the long-term, the cut in price could lead to a broadening of the criteria.
    Dr Mike Wyllie, one of the team that developed Viagra, said cutting the price should end the market in dangerous counterfeits.
    ‘The launch of generic versions is likely to be well-received by  mankind because it will reduce the cost of a medication for a disorder that has a serious impact on lifestyle,’ he said.


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2345878/Countdown-cheap-Viagra-From-midnight-tonight-drug-available-little-60p-tablet.html#ixzz2X3q0TUv7 
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