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So, guys, you don't need help in the bedroom?
By Bruce Japsen
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 23, 2005
Despite an onslaught of TV advertising and marketing
pitches to younger men, sales of impotence pills are lagging, raising
questions about whether drugmakers vastly overestimated demand for
new treatments for erectile dysfunction.
Sales of Viagra, Levitra and Cialis totaled an
estimated $1.2 billion last year in the United States--roughly the
same as in 2003--and well below Wall Street expectations.
"We are seeing everything flat-line out right
now," said Dr. Christopher Gonzalez, assistant professor of
urology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. "And
it's not like consumers don't know these drugs are out there."
Viagra, the diamond-shaped blue pill that transformed
the treatment of impotence
when it hit the market, saw its U.S. sales decline 20 percent in
2004 to $886 million, dethroning it as a $1 billion blockbuster
drug, although its sales worldwide still top that number.
It is unusual for a relatively new class of drugs
not to grow rapidly, especially since the drugs are unique and treat
a previously unmet need, which is why Viagra was hailed as such
a breakthrough when it came on the market in 1998.
"Normally, the class of drugs will expand
because of incremental promotion, but that's not happening,"
said Fred Nelson, vice president of marketing for ImpactRx Inc.,
a drug industry market research firm.
Doctors reason that younger men apparently do not
need or want such treatments and that men in their 50s, 60s and
70s who might be candidates are taking other medications that prevent
the pills from being taken or suffer from health problems that do
not allow the pills to work.
"A lot of these patients
have diabetes or severe cardiovascular problems," Gonzalez
said.
One thing's for sure, drugmakers are a long way
from reaching the 30 million to 35 million American men they once
predicted needed some pharmaceutical help to achieve or maintain
an erection. No one can be sure how many men are taking the drugs.
But one company estimate suggests that 1.2 million to 1.4 million
men are filling prescriptions each month.
The three drugmakers combined spent nearly $400
million on consumer advertising, which includes TV and print, from
January through October of last year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
That compares with $155 million in 2003 spent largely
on Viagra because Levitra was launched in late summer 2003 and Cialis
marketing began largely in early 2004.
Free samples
In the doctor's office, the number of free drug
samples has risen sharply, a sign of desperation by companies to
market their drugs, analysts say. Some experts suggest that the
market has been flooded with so many free samples that companies
have thwarted sales growth.
In December doctors were providing patients with
free samples of Cialis, Levitra or Viagra instead of writing prescriptions
of each an average of 35 percent of the time.
That's an increase from 22 percent when only Viagra
was on the market, according to data from ImPactRx.
British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline, which sells
Levitra, estimates that more than 50 percent of the impotence pills
on the market last year were samples.
"Consumers love free stuff but the fact of
the matter remains: Certainly what would have been an additional
10 to 15 percent growth in sales has been given away as free drug
and not for prescriptions," said ImpactRx's Nelson.
Over the years marketing of the drugs has changed
significantly, and that may be a reason sales have stagnated.
The world's largest drugmaker, Pfizer Inc., launched
Viagra with former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, then
75, as its pitchman. Over the past few years Viagra's promotions
were tied in with the likes of baseball slugger Rafael Palmeiro
as Pfizer tried to broaden the appeal to younger sports enthusiasts.
Viagra's advertising got more aggressive--and controversial--when
competitors launched lifestyle ads.
Last year Pfizer ran an ad that featured a smiling
man standing in front of the letter V in Viagra making it look like
the man had devil horns. The ad sported the line: "Get back
to mischief."
The ad was later pulled after it drew complaints
from federal regulators.
Doctors say recent ads send a confusing message
to patients who might really benefit from the drug, such as an elderly
man who has had prostate surgery.
"The way they market on TV is not reflective
of the men asking for these medications," Northwestern Memorial's
Gonzalez said.
"When you see these strong, vital people,
you ask yourself, why do they need it in the first place?"
he said.
The U.S. market is hugely important to impotence
pill makers because, as with other drugs, they make most of their
profits here because there are no price controls such as those that
exist outside the U.S.
Ads regulated
Furthermore, impotence pills have been a tough
sell outside the U.S. because consumer advertising, particularly
on TV, is either banned or highly regulated.
There are also cultural and societal issues in
many foreign countries that contribute to disinterest among men
and their doctors in such treatments.
Still, some drugmakers expect sales to increase
8 percent or more in the next year in the U.S.
That growth is far short of the breathtaking sales
that industry analysts once had expected: $4 billion or more in
the next four years.
Meanwhile, the top three makers of the pills are
battling among themselves for market share.
Icos Corp., which markets Cialis with Indianapolis-based
Eli Lilly & Co., for example, claims more men are moving away
from Levitra and Viagra to
Cialis.
A marketing program known as "the Cialis promise"
allows patients who have already been given Cialis for free to then
try Viagra or Levitra at the companies' expense.
So far, Lilly and Icos say 92 percent of men have
chosen Cialis above the rivals for their free second round of treatment.
"From the Cialis perspective, the E.D. market
is very healthy," said Leonard Blum, vice president of sales
and marketing for Bothell, Wash.-based Icos.
Yet confidence in the impotence market appears
to be waning for Levitra's maker. Earlier this month, Glaxo announced
it was selling marketing rights to Levitra outside the U.S. back
to the drug's original developer, German-based Bayer AG, for $272
million.
Glaxo executives reasoned that the climate in Europe
makes it more difficult to sell impotence drugs because consumer
advertising is banned in most countries.
"The big thing that drives this [market] is
public awareness," said David Pernock, senior vice president
of sales and marketing for Glaxo, which markets Levitra in the United
States with Schering-Plough Corp. of New Jersey.
Still, the company is optimistic, citing studies
indicating that 4.6 million men asked their doctor about erectile
dysfunction in the first half of 2004 compared with 2.8 million
in the year-earlier period.
"We are looking at this thing in the long
term," Pernock said. "There are still going to be a larger
percentage of men who are going to deny the problem or still feel
shy about talking about the problem. It takes awhile before you
can re-establish your brand as the it product to take."
As for Pfizer, the drug's maker is betting on Viagra's
name--arguably the best known pharmaceutical in the world-- and
longevity to maintain its market share, still above 70 percent in
the U.S.
Says Pfizer spokesman Daniel Watts: "We have
two key strengths: Pfizer's unrivaled understanding of the E.D.
market and Viagra's unsurpassed ability to deliver a reliable experience
time after time."
source:-http://www.chicagotribune.com | 
