Pfizer will soon start selling Viagra direct to customers online. Given how much Viagra spam OTB has gotten over the years, I assumed it has always been available online.
AP (“Pfizer to sell cut-price Viagra to patients online – becoming first drug company to deal directly with customers”
Pfizer Inc. has revealed that it will begin selling its popular erectile dysfunction pill Viagra directly to patients on its website – becoming the first drug company to deal directly with customers.
Men still will need a prescription to buy the blue, diamond-shaped pill on viagra.com, but they no longer have to face a pharmacist to get it filled.
And for those who are bothered by Viagra’s steep $25-a-pill price, Pfizer is offering three free pills with the first order and 30 percent off the second one, the company told the Associated Press.
Pfizer’s bold move blows up the drug industry’s distribution model. Drugmakers don’t sell medicines directly to patients. Instead, they sell in bulk to wholesalers, who then distribute the drugs to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors’ offices.
But the world’s second-largest drugmaker is trying a new strategy to tackle a problem that plagues the industry. Unscrupulous online pharmacies increasingly offer patients counterfeit versions of Viagra and other brand-name drugs for up to 95 percent off with no prescription needed. Patients don’t realize the drugs are fake or that legitimate pharmacies require a prescription.
Indeed, you can’t buy contact lenses or even pet flea drops online without a prescription. Then again, I figure people stupid enough to buy 95-percent-off-no-prescription Viagra from dubious websites are unlikely to start paying 95 percent more to buy it from the manufacturer.
