It's not the first time a drugmaker has experimented with direct sales, but
it's the first still-on-patent drug to be distributed this way. Pfizer itself
tested a program it called Lipitor For You, which allowed brand-loyal patients
to enroll online and receive the newly off-patent cholesterol drug directly
from a specialty pharmacy. The company phased that program out last spring.
And as with the Lipitor program, the Viagra move includes money-off coupons to stimulate sales.
Pfizer offers three free pills with the first order and 30% off the second, the
AP reports. The drug giant is working with CVS Caremark to actually fill the orders placed on the Viagra website, AP
says.
With Lipitor, Pfizer wanted to support sales of the branded version as long
as possible to help it blunt the pain of its patent cliff. With Viagra, the
motivation is different; Pfizer won extended patent protection for the ED pill,
so it doesn't lose market exclusivity till 2020.
Discretion is, of course, one motivating factor. And then there's the fact that
Viagra already faces cheap knockoffs in the form of counterfeit pills. The
company's security team has grown adept at tracking down Viagra counterfeiters,
but with direct-to-patient sales, Pfizer can compete with illegal copycats on
their own turf--the Internet.
After Pfizer began Lipitor For You, AstraZeneca launched Arimidex Direct to promote the off-patent breast cancer treatment. Patients with a
valid prescription enroll online and receive the breast cancer treatment
directly for the cash price of $40 per month (or less for privately insured
patients with lower co-pays). The company's Arimidex Direct website is careful to
note that patients now using generic versions of the drug can still enroll in
the direct-sales program.