Pfizer sells 4m dollars' worth of Viagra

Pfizer, the largest drug producer worldwide, has sold 4 million dollars’ worth of Viagra on the Romanian market, up 35% on 2006. This amounts to around 385,000, 50-milligram pills sold in 2007, compared with 285,000 in 2006. One 50-mg pill costs 25 RON (7 euros) in drugstores. However, the company’s most well known drug is not its best selling. The number 1 seller is Sortis, which has become a blockbuster drug on the Romanian market. “In Romania, Viagra is doing quite well. It is the market leader (among drugs for erectile dysfunctions), with a 66% share, i.e. two thirds of the market in 2007. The product saw a 35% increase”, Stanley Mendon’a, country manager of Pfizer Romania, told ZF. Mendon’a, 43, was appointed at the helm of the local branch of the American giant in 2006, and succeeded R?gis Lhomme, who, in turn, took over the management of the Russian branch. Viagra’s competitors are Cialis (owned by Eli Lilly) and Levitra (owned by GSK). According to Cegedim data, Pfizer ranked sixth among the leading players on the pharmaceutical market in the October 2006 – September 2007 period.