Pfizer expects Rp 12 billion from Viagra sales this year
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)