Viagra faces stiff challenge to stay on top
Well, the latest corporate rumble is set to settle this dispute for once and for all.
The battle to keep the sex lives of millions of couples from quite literally flagging, while accumulating billions in the process, is about to get down and dirty.
Previously dominant in the massively profitable male erectile dysfunction market, Viagra is about to do
battle with a new competitor, as French pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly launches Cialis.
And Cialis, its makers claim, will not only be bigger and better but will also last longer than Pfizer’s little blue diamond.
Since it exploded onto the market five years ago, Viagra has captured a worldwide market worth $1.5 billion, in the process becoming a byword for potency.
But Cialis, which is being launched today, is said to allow couples more spontaneity, as it can be taken up to 12 hours before sex and stays active in the system for 24-hours.
Viagra, on the other hand, has to be taken just one hour before love-making and lasts between three and four hours. Meanwhile, the new drug, known also as Tadalafil, is also said to have fewer side effects.
Pfizer, so concerned that its new rival will put a dampner on its enlarged Viagra sales, unsuccessfully tried to stop Cialis with legal actions in the US and Europe.
And later this year the erectile dysfunction market looks set to become a wrangling threesome as GlaxoSmitKline is set to launch its own pill.
With a name like Levitra there is little doubt what GlaxoSmithkline reckons the drug will do.
Naturally the internet is already buzzing with talk of the new wonder drugs, including a reincarnation of all the old Viagra jokes as well as suggestions for a generic name for the ill-sounding Cialis.
Contender for the best descriptive name so far has to go to the blunt but factually correct title: Fix-a-Flat.
