Viagra is going generic at half the price of the branded version
- Viagra has gone generic.
- The drug, used to treat erectile dysfunction, has been a billion-dollar drug for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer for almost two decades.
- The generic version will cost roughly half the price of the $65 brand-name pill, and the price is expected to fall by as much as 90% by 2018.
The little blue pill has gone generic.
On Monday, generic versions of Viagra, the blockbuster medication used to treat erectile dysfunction, became available in the US.
To compete with these versions, Pfizer, the company behind brand-name Viagra, launched a generic version at half the price. Before accounting for insurance, brand-name Viagra can cost as much as $65 a pill.
By the time more generic versions of the drug go on sale in 2018, the price could be down as much as 90%.
First approved in 1998, Viagra has consistently made more than $1 billion in sales every year since 1999. The drug made as much as $2 billion in sales in 2012. Viagra was the first drug approved to treat erectile dysfunction, though competitors like Cialis came out shortly after.
"The launch of Teva's sildenafil tablets brings an affordable generic treatment option to the estimated 18 million men in the U.S. who are diagnosed with erectile dysfunction," Brendan O'Grady, Teva Pharmaceuticals executive vice president of North American commercial, which launched a generic version of Viagra on Monday said in a news release.