Chinese pharmas eagerly await expiry of Viagra patent

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-05-12

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.

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