Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-05-12
Two months from now, Pfizer's patent for the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra will expire and the gate holding back Chinese pharmaceutical corporations from the coveted market will be lifted.
Boxes of Viagra. (File photo/Xinhua) |
Two months from now, Pfizer's patent for the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra will expire and the gate holding back Chinese pharmaceutical corporations from the coveted market will be lifted.
As of 2013,
300 million Viagra pills had been sold globally. The drug has also been Pfizer's
most profitable product in the Chinese market.
A Chinese
magazine pointed out that after Viagra's patent expired in South Korea two
years ago, 28 cheaper versions of the drug flooded the market, carrying away
Pfizer's 57% market share with it.
So far,
several Chinese pharmaceutical corporations have filed applications for
approval to sell generic versions of Viagra.
In 1994,
Pfizer filed patent applications in over 100 countries for the substance
sildenafil citrate to be used for treating erectile dysfunction.
At the time
Viagra entered China's market in 2000, 17 Chinese pharmaceutical firms were
seeking approval from the country's Food and Drug Administration to produce
similar drugs containing sildenafil citrate for the same purpose. But Pfizer, which
filed the patent application in China in 1994, was granted the patent by
China's intellectual property authorities on Sept. 19, 2001.
China
Pharmaceutical Enterprise Management Association director Ming De stated that
most Chinese manufacturers of generic drugs only copy the authentic drugs on
the surface, so a large number of drugmakers entering the market only results
in a waste of resources.
Even though
China has over 5,000 manufacturers of generic drugs, it has not formed a real
market, said Israel Makov, former CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.
Many drug
suppliers concentrate on manufacturing generics and price competition but
neglect to focus on the research and development of new drugs, which requires
greater capital and expertise.
The expiry
of Viagra's patent is just one of over 600 cases of patented drugs set to
expire between 2012 and 2015 in China, according to the Chinese Medical Report.
For the
Chinese market, where 90% of the drugs are generics, the cheaper versions will
target the over 100 billion yuan (US$16 billion) market. But Chinese
pharmaceutical firms do not appear to be well prepared because they are not
treating the production of generic drugs seriously, said the report.
Related Articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment