Viagra hit by Chinese ruling

PFIZER’S impotence drug Viagra is being denied patent protection in the Chinese market, the firm said yesterday.

China, with the one of the world’s oldest and most developed impotence potion markets, is almost a closed shop to the company, which has failed to make any significant inroads.

As a result, Viagra knock-offs are more widely available that the real thing. Now Beijing’s State Intellectual Property Office is refusing to grant a patent to Pfizer for sildenafil citrate, the main ingredient in the popular impotence drug.