Viagra: Big Here, Bigger in China, Online Prescription Medication

China is becoming more urban, and its middle class is growing.
The company has struggled with lower profits in recent years, and much of those losses had to do with the expiration of patent protection for two of Pfizer’s blockbuster drugs, Viagra and Lipitor. Viagra still has a few years of patent protection in the United States and still enjoys strong U.S. sales, but it has lost patent protection in a number of European countries as well as Canada.
The declining sales of Viagra coincidentally corresponded with the growth of the Chinese middle class. Pfizer estimates that Chinese men between the ages of 30 and 60 have a rate of erectile dysfunction (ED) of about 28%. This brings the potential patient population for Viagra in China to a staggering 68 million people, with Viagra accounting for more than 60% of China’s ED drug market. Cialis is the best-selling ED drug worldwide, but Viagra reigns supreme in China.
Reasons for the rising popularity of Viagra in China.
One of the biggest global stories of the past five years has been the astonishing growth of the Indian and Chinese economies and the rise of a Chinese middle class that enjoys spending its newfound wealth. The side effects of increasing prosperity have driven the demand for Viagra beyond what makes it easy to use in China. Chinese men exercise less, sit more in office jobs, and develop health problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity, all of which have a negative impact on sexual performance.
Pfizer has positioned itself to take maximum advantage of this convergence of factors and has participated in several public awareness and education campaigns in China about ED and the drugs it treats. The company surveyed over 10,000 Chinese professionals about their sexual health and published the findings in a document that includes references to Viagra and describes sexual trends. In addition, the company has developed a popular smartphone app that provides daily facts and suggestions on male health.
Traditional Chinese treatments for erectile dysfunction.
Chinese medicine has traditionally treated ED through the use of herbs. A berry called Shisandra has traditionally been consumed by Taoist masters and Chinese kings and is said to increase sexual performance when consumed regularly. Anecdotal evidence suggests that schisandra increases the production of bodily fluids, decreases feelings of stress, and may increase sexual stamina.
Another plant, Tribulus terrestris, is said to increase libido and fertility. Consuming Tribulus terrestris is believed to cause the release of nitric oxide, which is similar to how Viagra works. Scientific studies are suggested to find out more about how it works. Epimedium is a third herb that has been used for centuries in China to treat ED. It is believed that there are chemikalien, which are called phosphodiesterases, as Western ED drugs do.
Contrary to popular belief, the Chinese do not use powdered rhino horn as an aphrodisiac. It is typically used for fevers and convulsions, although there is no evidence of its effectiveness (and rhinos are critically endangered).
If traditional ED drugs retain their popularity in China, it could encourage Chinese consumers to avoid herbal or animal “remedies” that have questionable efficacy and can lead to environmental damage. Still, Viagra is expensive for the typical middle-class Chinese man, so the change could be gradual rather than revolutionary.
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How long will the success of Viagra in China last?
There is also the issue of competition with Viagra in China. While Viagra has long been known around the world, it has also found its way into the company of many other PDE-5 inhibitors, as well as generic drugs, which are sold for considerably less than the brand-name brand. Specifically in China, a generic drug for the treatment of ED was launched by Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Holdings in 2014. The company calls the drug Golden Dagger Axe and has priced it around 60% cheaper than Viagra, which sells for about $21 per tablet in China.
Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical is also following in Pfizer’s footsteps and increasing the education of doctors and ordinary consumers about ED. But Viagra can be successful in China in the long run, even if it doesn’t significantly lower prices, as Chinese consumers often have more confidence in foreign drugs than those developed in China.
Viagra enjoys a great deal of notoriety among Chinese, who often prefer foreign drugs to those made in China.
China and the counterfeiting of medicines.
Another potential problem that Pfizer has to deal with in China (as well as everywhere else in the world) is the huge amount of counterfeit Viagra that is produced and sold every year. An estimated 90% of counterfeit drugs are made in China, and Viagra is one of the most common (if not the most) counterfeit drugs in history. If you do a search engine query for “cheap Viagra” and find websites that offer it for just a few dollars per pill, you can rest assured that it’s fake, and you can be pretty sure that it’s made in China.
Stopping counterfeit drugs is a full-time job that requires the cooperation of law enforcement agencies at the local, national, and international levels. But despite the efforts of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and their counterparts around the world, new sources of counterfeit Viagra are popping up as soon as old ones are shut down. Chinese men, like men in the rest of the world, need to be careful about where they get their “Viagra” and take steps to ensure that what they receive is the real thing. Pfizer can help people verify the authenticity of their product using batch numbers (which are regularly withdrawn). The bottom line for men all over the world is that super-cheap Viagra is almost certainly fake and should be avoided.
Pfizer is tapping into the growing economic power of China’s middle class by raising awareness of ED and effective Western treatments for it. Strong sales of Viagra in China have helped offset losses the company has suffered in other parts of the world, where the drug’s patent has expired and cheaper generic drugs have entered the market.