Men who need a little bedroom help no longer have to go to the drugstore to buy that little blue pill.
In a first for the drug industry giant, Pfizer Inc. will begin selling its popular erectile dysfunction pill directly to patients on its website.
Men will need a prescription to buy Viagra. But Pfizer is sweetening the deal by offering three free pills with the first order, and 30 percent off the second one.
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Typically, drugmakers do not sell medicines directly to patients. Instead, they sell in bulk to wholesalers, who then distribute the drugs topharmacies, 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, which 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.
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Other major drugmakers likely will watch Pfizer’s move closely. If it works, drugmakers could begin selling other medicines that are rampantly counterfeited and sold online, particularly treatments for non-urgent conditions seen as embarrassing.
