NYT: Sales of Impotence Drugs Fall, Defying Expectations

Sales of Impotence Drugs Fall, Defying Expectations
By ALEX BERENSON
Published: December 4, 2005


Seven years after Pfizer made Viagra a cultural touchstone and commercial blockbuster, the market for impotence medicines appears to have fallen well short of what was once predicted.

Heavy advertising to consumers, totaling more than $400 million in 2004, has made Viagra and its newer competitors, Cialis and Levitra, among the best-known drug brands in the United States, and their combined global sales reached about $2.5 billion last year. But the number of new prescriptions for the drugs has fallen steadily this year. Doctors wrote about 10 percent fewer new prescriptions in October than they did in October of 2004.

Some of the decline is a result of reports, disputed by some specialists, that linked the drugs to a rare form of blindness, say urologists who specialize in treating impotence. But a more fundamental factor is also hurting sales, these doctors say: many impotent men have chosen not to take the drugs, even though the drugs work about 70 percent of the time and have relatively few side effects.

The drop in prescriptions comes as sales of other heavily marketed medicines, like antidepressants, are also stalling, and it may be another sign of the limits of consumer advertising to drive demand for drugs. In the late 1990's, drug makers used television advertising to introduce treatments for chronic conditions like arthritis and heartburn. But today, with many patients angry about drug prices and worried that companies are downplaying side effects, drug advertising seems to have lost some of its power.

As many as half of men over 40 have at least mild or occasional impotence, but Pfizer estimates that only about 15 percent of those men get prescriptions for Viagra, Cialis or Levitra in a given year. In the hopes of increasing that figure, Pfizer is about to begin two major new ad campaigns, one for Viagra and a more general one about erectile dysfunction, the company's preferred term for impotence....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/business/yourmoney/04impotence.html?hp&ex=1133672400&en=e4a0980a5ba9ea4c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

continues to rise could have something to do with this. Not to mention decisions between paying for medications or buying food, or heating your home.

Marketing is starting to come face to face with reality, I suspect.

All part of the 'implosion' that this Admin has fostered. Like Big Business now vying with Big Oil -- people don't go out and spend when it costs too much to drive to the goddamned mall and shop!

Kind of hard (pun definitely intended) to think about spending your quickly-diminishing disposable income on drugs to get you 'in the mood' when you have to 'do it' under fifty blankets because you can't afford to heat the bedroom!

when you can't afford the hooker?

:rofl:

...gone up in price, or have been dropped by their Health Insurance plans.

Hey, do any of the 5000+ Social Security drug plans cover Viagra?

Possible reasons:

People can't afford the medical care they need for critical and life threatening conditions, so they aren't taking extra pills at all

So many people have to work 2 or 3 jobs they don't have time to attend to a boner

People are just tired

People are just not excited

The magic pills do not make anyone more skilled, so they might have trouble interesting a partner.

They know that Cheney just wants them to go fuck themselves, so why bother buying drugs from his corporate buddies

perhaps some have decided their eyes were too important to risk.

dp

When my hubby and I got married, one of his childhood friends that grew up to be a doc, gave us Viagra as a wedding gift. (My hubby doesn't "need" them, but his friend told him that if he took them we'd never leave the hotel room.) My hubby took one dose, and when he woke up the next morning he saw all light colored things in shades of blue. Whites, yellows, and other light colors looked to him to be blue. We called the doc, and he said he had never heard of that reaction in someone so young, and to be safe we should just flush them. His "blue vision" went away in 12-16 hours, but it was really scary experience.

a lot of guys that got, and were using this drug were just guys having sex with the same woman for 30 years. It's no wonder they were having a hard time (excuse the pun) getting it up. Believe me, if a 20 year old woman stripped in front of them they would be up in no time. Just my opinion.
I'm not talking about the users with serious problems like prostrate cancer but then that isn't really who the companies thought would be their big market.

those little blue pills are probably a major annoyance. Perhaps that's why sales are flagging (pun intended).

image of my own body has tumbled drastically, and I can't imagine my partner would want to look at me nekid anymore, even tho they are still interested. That plus the subconscious fear of 2 previous heart attacks, and the complications of blood pressure, heart rate, and diabetic medications.

I know, it's something I've got to deal with adn work on, but my subconscious is working overtime in spite of my attempts to consciously use common sense, etc.

Besides, I'm too tired and busy with all the incompetant people we get when we hire, and the good quality people we can't seem to find when we search, so I have too much work to do.

Tired, lazy, older, looks.

Pretty soon it all adds up to some big excuses.

but isn't there always a workaround? Soft lighting, letting the partner do most of the work, quickies, are a few that come to mind. :-)

... I knew this thread would be fun :)

the "figures of beauty" corporate America has been selling.

Sex is good, but it's not like breathing or having enough to eat.

that's the best pun they could come up with? ;)

:rofl:

...on the internet.

I heard a radio interview with Ron Jeremy (come on, you ALL know who he is) and he said that Viagra has fundamentally changed the XXX industry which no longer has to depend on just a few "talented" men, now just about guy can perform like the old masters.

Plus, when you have to choose between paying $100.00 to fill up your Mega-SUV or pay for month supply of Viagra, why wouldn't 10% choose Gasoline?

The internet was built on porn. All those little mom and pop ISPs prior to consolidation were kept running (financially) by porn sites.

I've got no hard proof of this, but a very strong suspicion, based on some observations on usenet when Usenet 2 came into being.

... you don't have to prove it to me. Porn was the only thing making money in the early days.

a young new partner, found out that the young women were more interested in the thickness of their wallets..:evilgrin:

:rofl:

i wonder if they've investigated this possibility... simply reassuring men that they could still have sex might have been enough to get them going naturally?

used Viagra, etc for about a year experienced a "rebound effect" if you can call it that, in which they recovered their former ability to some measurable extent without needing the medicine anymore.

It actually makes sense, if you consider how NSAs (and steroids as well) work for injuries, in effect fooling the body into thinking it has begun the healing process, and thereby encouraging the body to continue the healing process...there's no reason not to think that the anti-impotence drugs can (so to speak) reset some kind of switch in the body and / or brain.

Redstone

perhaps the new ad campaign can be crafted to undermine men's confidence in themselves. "You may think you are getting hard on your own, but without our drug, who knows when the you might fizzle out? Take Viagra, just to be sure."

edit to add :sarcasm:

I think it's a little like riding a bicycle. Once they remembered how, things seemed to improve naturally for a lot of guys.

As near as I can tell there are lots of men whoe couldn't get either get a partner or thier partner has no use for sex. Before some of these guys could put this off off to not getting it up. Now they've got a stiff one and they find out that it was a convienent excuse for their partner to shut them down.

Hell, I'm sure there were some women (like my ex) who were experts and making things soften up and were consterned to see that they had to find other ways to drown the fireworks. I bet Viagra has precipitated a few overdue divorces also.

Call me cynical.

and not necessary fulfill needs of Americans.

"The drop in prescriptions comes as sales of other heavily marketed medicines, like antidepressants, are also stalling, and it may be another sign of the limits of consumer advertising to drive demand for drugs. "

Eventually. Once they have squeezed all the profit potential out of the patents, they will argue that the drugs are no more dangerous than aspirin and ought to be sold over the counter.

maybe it never worked for him and he quit the endorsement. Those were very stupid commercials...image Bob Dole and wife having sex....same as Baba Bush and Poppy Bush. Good Lord!

A friend of ours tried Viagra and some other pills to help with his sex life. The sight affects of the pills were too dangerous for the husband and he never got an erection anyway. The wife actually didn't want anything else to do with sex. Her vagina became too thin and delicate, and too painful for sex. They've been married for 50 years and they are still very happy.

It's still a creepy image.

not interested in women. That would save me a lot of money.

In this short story, a father invents "Ethical Birth Control"
after taking his kids on a Sunday outing to the Zoo, where
they encounter the monkeys doin' what comes naturally.

Ethical Birth Control has no effect on your ability to procreate
(so it's ethical for use by, e.g., Catholics), it just makes you
completely numb from the waist down. And, oh yeah, it makes
you pee turqoise.

"Most men said their bottom halves felt like cold iron
or balsa-wood. Most women said their bottom halves felt
like wet cotton or stale ginger ale. The pills were so
effective that you cold blindfold a man who had taken
one, tell him to recite the Gettysburg Address, kick him
in the balls while he was doing it, and he wouldn't miss
a syllable."

The is also the short story where Vonnegut introduced the
concept of Ethical Suicide Parlors, run in converted ex-
Howard Johnson restaurants which now had their famous
orange roofs repainted purple and were now populated by
sex-bomb Ethical Suicide Parlor hostesses, also clad in
purple. (These parlors may have been some of the inspir-
ation for one of the plotlines in "Soylent Green".)

"I did not sow, I did not spin,
And thanks to pills I did not sin.
I loved the crowds, the stink, the noise.
And when I peed, I peed turquoise.

I ate beneath a roof of orange;
Swung with progress like a door hinge.
'Neath purple roof I've come today
To piss my azure life away.

Virgin hostess, death's recruiter,
Life is cute, but you are cuter.
Mourn my pecker, purple daughter -
All it passed was sky-blue water.

Tesha

Now that the working class is disappearing and unions are breaking left and right...

Now that the government has engaged in a thinly veiled campaign to starve the poor and black left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina...

Now that war profiteers can throw $10 million parties for their kids...

Now that creationism is being forced into public classrooms...

Now that the Bill of Rights is being shredded for the sake of 'security'...

Now that brown people are being tortured, shot and blown to bits by the thousands...


Republicans no longer need chemical assistance to get an erection.

You didn't say it, but ultimatly, when they can't find a real readson which they can Sell to the American public, they always default to, "It's Cliton's fault." :evilgrin:

"Welcome to the lowest price online"

Viagra 100 mg - 3 Tabs $69.00

Viagra 100 mg - 5 Tabs $95.00

Viagra 100 mg - 10 Tabs $148.00

Viagra 100 mg - 15 Tabs $196.00

Viagra 100 mg - 20 Tabs $249.00

Viagra 100 mg - 30 Tabs $338.00

nt

I know people bitch all the time because they can't get their Lo-Ovral, but I supposedly can get Cialis (Actually, the exact OPPOSITE is true with MY coverage)

Do you think the boner pills are dropping in popularity because they're going off-formulary because of cost and PR pressure?

Those things are what, $20 a Schwing full retail?

Even though VIAGRA has been known to cause blindness, it's A-OK for it to be on the market, but the morning after pill or RU-486, which has been proven medically safe and RU-486 has a very safe medical history in Europe - these CAN'T be put in the market?

EXCUSE ME? My my my, what a MYSOGENIST government we have. Is it or is it NOT oh-so-evident that MEN run these corporations and this country - primarily for their OWN benefit and control?

Huh.

the feelings of women are irrelevant to these bozos.


men having sex---studs
women having sex----sluts must be punished

.... not to blow your fantasy too much, but there have been 4 cases of blindness out of 23 million users of Viagra, not proven to be caused by the drug at all.

Aspirin has a worse record than that.

I agree that RU486 should be available, no question, but Viagra is safer than most drugs.

...Viagra and aspirin should be taken off the market. The same standards should be applied. That's science and that's logical.

Except that men are encouraged to have as much sex as possible and women who do are sluts - that's the attitude behind the difference in standards. It's not science. It's reich-wingnut extremeist mysogeny and ideology. And that's my point.

.. there are some people who have a double standard about women, men and sex, but not nearly so many as there used to be.

I only consider someone a "slut" (and that term can apply to males as well as females) if they have sex with other people when they are in a committed relationship. And yeah, I disapprove of that, hugely - call me old fashioned.

But seriously, I don't think that sexism is the reason RU486 has not been approved. Religious fundamentalism is the root cause.

Religious fundamentalism is BASED on misogyny.
Well, that... and ignorance and fear of death.
But control of women, especially sexually, is a BIG component.

...sexism!

If there's one thing we know with certainty, it's that when there is a demand for a drug, the drug is eventually supplied, no matter what.

A great example is Rush Limbaugh. He didn't just have a taste for hydrocodone. He had a particular preference for the Mexican version of Vicodin (his "little blue pills"), which are much stronger than the American version. We don't know if Rush's elephantine habits singlehandedly created the market for "blue vicodin," which of course would open any trafficker or user (other than Rush) to severe federal penalties, but it is now readily available here in the United States.

RU-486 will be similarly available if the demand for it persists. But demand in general for RU-486 may well decline as it becomes more widely known that simply halting all intake of folic acid may be effective in terminating an unwanted pregnancy in the first 28 days.

At one point, the FAA was considering banning pilots from flying
within n hours of taking Viagra because of the common "bluevision"
side-effect.

What (if anything) did they ever decide?

Tesha

PerpetualBoner so you have the perpetual urge to impregnate anyone anytime" mentality,
then they're stuck with the pregnancy.
Keep 'em barefoot and pregnant!!!
(oh that's right, on second thought, they need to have the kids and GET TO WORK!!!):sarcasm:

Is this a fucking sick Administration or what? :puke:

Oh, and remember to "Ask your Doctor!!!":sarcasm:

must have stopped boning their staff members.

One of the more curious side-effects of wartime is that interest sex in general appears to decline, particularly among males.

That's exactly as much as I know about the subject, but I remember that a Soviet-era demographer by the name of Urlanis is the reigning authority on the matter, should someone care to look it up.

Because I wonder about the root causes of impotence. There is usually a physical cause, such as an enlarged prostate, and subsequent treatment, certain neruological disorders,or it's a side effect of certain blood pressure medications. Viagra or other impotence drugs can't be taken in some cases.

So I of agree that the advertising was over done, and some men are realizing they just don't need viagra. Men can get very anxious if they're unable to have an erection, even if it's just once in a while. (Not related to being pissy drunk that is, most guys over 30 understand THAT one) Fear can set up future failure. I think the drug companies pandered to this.