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Viagra to Enter China: Pfizer
More than two years after its debut, the anti-impotence drug Viagra finally obtains official approval to enter into China, the world's most populous country.
State Drug Administration of China has approved the production and sale of Viagra in the country, according to the Beijing office of Pfizer Inc. of the United States, the pharmaceutical giant which developed the diamond-shaped blue pills. and has net huge profits from it since April 1998.
Pfizer plans to hold a hook-up TV press conference next Monday in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou simultaneously, releasing more details about the launch, said Wang Xunbiao at Pfizer's Beijing office.
Relevant questions such as whether the pill will be available only with a doctor's prescription and the price of the drug are expected to be answered at the conference.
The Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Inc. in northeast China's Dalian City, a Chinese unit of the U.S. firm, will produce the drug by using the imported material, said Lai Wanfeng, a quality-control manager from the firm.
Viagra will be marketed with the registered Chinese name "wan ai ke", which is literally meaningless, even though the pill has long been known throughout the country as "weige" - the Chinese phrase literally meaning "Great Brother".
Although there is still no exact statistics of erectile dysfunction (ED) patients in China, a report provided by Pfizer states that ED is one of the most serious sexual dysfunction in males, only after prospermia.
It is estimated that more than 100 million men are suffering from ED around the world, the report says.
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