Pfizer will begin airing new TV ads today that feature a band of men in their 40s and 50s singing "Viva Viagra" to the tune of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas." The first ad, an attempt to make men less embarrassed about the disorder, will run during the NBC Nightly News, the company said.
Pfizer is struggling to boost sales of Viagra, which have fallen 11 percent to $1.7 billion since 2003, when Eli Lilly & Co.'s Cialis and Bayer AG's Levitra became available. Pfizer, based in New York, says there's still room for the market to grow because as few as 10 percent of the 33 million men in the U.S. with erectile dysfunction are treating the condition.
"This disease is very stigmatized and there are a lot of misperceptions," said Ponni Subbiah, Pfizer's medical director for Viagra. "Men are very willing to talk to their doctors about back pain or injuries, but not ED."
Pfizer's shares rose 37 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $25.27 at 12:15 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have gained 4.5 percent in the past 12 months before today.
Sales of Viagra, which costs $10 a pill, rose 1 percent to $1.7 billion last year, while revenue from Eli Lilly's rival Cialis gained 30 percent to $971 million, the companies reported. Pfizer spent $95 million on Viagra advertising last year, 61 percent more than Lilly, according to data from market research firm Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
Adult Time
The new ads will run during programming where 90 percent of viewers are adults. Pfizer declined to comment on how frequently the ads will run or how much it's spending on the campaign.
In a break from past Viagra advertising -- which had spokesmen such as former senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole and television sex expert Dr. Drew Pinsky -- this ad features middle-aged men playing guitars and driving motorcycles and vintage cars.
Advocacy groups and U.S. officials have criticized Pfizer in the past for its Viagra marketing tactics. The company had to pull a Viagra ad in 2004 that featured a man who grew devil horns when he walked past a lingerie store in a shopping mall. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the ads were misleading and didn't properly warn of the risks.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which runs 14 AIDS clinics in the U.S. and seven pharmacies, sued Pfizer in February claiming its Viagra marketing encourages recreational sex that can increase the risk of users getting the HIV virus. The lawsuit was dismissed, said Michael Weinstein, the president of the foundation.
Sin City
"Pfizer has been an outlier in shamelessly promoting Viagra as a party drug," Weinstein said. "All those Sin City references, everything associated with Vegas, that is what they want the association to be. It's not about a medical condition, it's about performance anxiety."
His group met with the FDA to express their concern about Viagra ads in the past, he said.
Pfizer is also studying new formulations and a possible non-prescription version of the drug that could increase usage, said Subbiah, who declined to comment on specific research projects. When Viagra came on the market in 1998 it quickly became one of Pfizer's most successful products, helping the company become the world's largest drugmaker.
Pfizer is racing to increase sales of its existing drugs with new television ads in an attempt to help replace some of the $21 billion in annual revenue it is at risk of losing by 2011 to generic competition.
Pfizer revived advertising for its painkiller Celebrex in April after a two-year hiatus following a recall of a similar drug, Merck & Co.'s Vioxx. This month it also began airing television ads for Exubera, an inhaled form of insulin that the company says has had disappointing sales since it came on the market last year.
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