Pfizer turns e-tailer to counter fake Viagra

Pfizer has launched a website to sell its erectile dysfunction product Viagra directly to US consumers to thwart sales by rogue online pharmacies.

The new site - www.viagra.com - has been set up in collaboration with pharmacy chain CVS and will sell Viagra (sildenafil) to US men who can provide a valid prescription for the drug.

The site answers a common question by members of the public seeking to buy any product online, namely how they can be sure the site selling them the goods is not passing off fraudulent knock-offs?

The US National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) already operates an accreditation system for online pharmacies - called the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) - but consumer awareness of the scheme remains patchy and buying behaviours remain risky.

A Pfizer-commissioned survey in 2011 found that men were still placing themselves at risk of counterfeits - such as buying ED medicines from Internet pharmacies advertised by spam (27 per cent) or based on an online search (36 per cent) - despite public awareness drives to highlight the dangers of buying drugs from rogue pharmacies.

"There are almost 24 million searches a year for Viagra online," according to Victor Clavelli, marketing group leader for Pfizer's primary care business unit, while the tally for fulfilled US prescriptions of the drug were around 8 million.

"By offering men with ED convenient access and a legitimate alternative to purchase Viagra online, our hope is that Pfizer will help rein in the distribution of fake ED products," he added. It will be interesting to see if other drugmakers follow Pfizer's lead and set up similar distribution schemes for other highly-counterfeited medicines.

That said, a proportion of men seeking Viagra do so for recreational rather than medical reasons, however, and so are likely to continue to try to source the drug from illicit sites that will make it available without prescription.

There seems to be near-endless opportunities to do so. A recent NABP review found that as few as 3 per cent of websites selling prescription drugs are legitimate pharmacies, and up to half offer foreign or non-FDA-approved drugs. Meanwhile, a Pfizer study in 2-11 found that 80 per cent of Viagra sourced from 22 websites among the top search results online were supplying counterfeit product.

Pfizer sold more than $2bn-worth of Viagra in 2012, but estimates published in 2009 suggested counterfeits could have robbed the brand of $2bn in lost revenues since its launch a decade earlier. And with e-commerce burgeoning the problem is likely to have since accelerated.