Pfizer expects Rp 12 billion from Viagra sales this year

JAKARTA (JP): Drug producer PT Pfizer Indonesia expects Rp 12 billion (US$ 1.6 million) from sales of the much hyped anti- impotence drug Viagra this year after reaping Rp 5 billion since first launching it in August 1999.

Pfizer pharmaceutical division director Simon Tobing said here on Wednesday that sales had shown a significant improvement after the government eased the market restriction on Viagra's sales at the end of last year.

"The government's decision to treat Viagra like any normal drug sold at pharmacies allows us to expand our market," he said.

Until December the directorate general of food and medicine imposed tight monitoring on the prescription of Viagra pills, which only authorized specialists could do.

He said previous sales of Viagra were mostly concentrated in large cities, as the restriction imposed by the government required doctors to undergo a one-day training course in the treatment of impotency or erectil dysfuntion.

He said since the launching of Viagra in Indonesia, Pfizer had sold some 85,000 pills, of which 40 percent to 45 percent were sold in Jakarta and some 20 percent in Surabaya.

Based on Pfizer research around 6 million people in Indonesia suffer from impotency with only 10 percent reporting their illness to doctors.

Of the 10 percent, however, only five percent could afford to buy Viagra, thus reducing Pfizer potential market to 30,000 consumers, Simon said.

"We have 30,000 people consuming an estimated four pills a month; that's the market we are working on," he said, adding that Viagra was already a market leader in oral cures for erectil dysfunction.

He also expected the January launching of the Viagra 100- milligram dosage pill to further boost sales, as some 70 percent of erectil dysfunction patients require this dosage.

"In fact from total Viagra sales of Rp 5 billion, we made Rp 1.4 billion in February alone when we first introduced the 100 mg dosage," Simon said.

Prior to lifting the restriction on Viagra, the government only allowed the sales of 25-milligram and 50-milligram Viagra pills.

Local production

Pfizer finance director Derek Kosti said the company would produce Viagra in Indonesia and planned to invest US$1 million in machinery and packaging tools.

"We plan to produce Pfizer locally starting this August," Kosti said.

He said the raw material, sildenafil citrate, would still be imported and Pfizer's production plant in Bogor would only press and package the pills.

No figure was available on how many Viagra pills Pfizer planned to produce in Indonesia, but Kosti assured that the company would have no problems in meeting the market demand.

Kosti expected prices for Viagra pills to drop, providing the rupiah rate against the U.S. dollar remained at between Rp 7,000 and Rp 7,500.

Pharmacies sell Pfizer's 25-milligram and 50-milligram Viagra pills for as high as Rp 58,000 and Rp 81,000 respectively. The 100-milligram Viagra pill is sold at a maximum price of Rp 104,000.

Derek said the high price of the product was due to Pfizer's quality control, which according to him was lacking in the production of smuggled Viagra pills.

The company reported that smuggled Viagra pills were sold here at between Rp 20,000 to Rp 40,000 a pill.

Pfizer marketing manager Supinaryo said that prior to the release of the 100-milligram Viagra pills, people sought these pills on the black market.

However, he said Pfizer was not competing against smugglers or counterfeiters of Viagra pills.

"Our market share consists only of patients diagnosed with erectil dysfunction by doctors," he said.

He said Pfizer did not sell Viagra for recreational purposes and added that the pills would have no affect on healthy people.

Pfizer has been in Indonesia since 1969 and employs 501 people. Its brands include eye medicine Visine and antiworm medicine Combatrin. (bkm)