Original drugs in the erectile dysfunction treatment market, such as Viagra and Cialis, failed to defeat generic copies in the second quarter, industry data showed.
According to data from IQVIA, the size of the oral erectile dysfunction drug market in the second quarter was 29.5 billion won ($25.2 million), up 4.8 percent from the same period last year.
The erectile dysfunction treatment market, which had shown a downward trend in the first and second quarters of last year due to the decrease in patient's hospital visits due to the Covid-19 outbreak, has been gradually increasing since the second half of last year.
During this time, generic products released by local pharmaceutical companies are expanding their influence. For example, Hanmi Pharmaceutical's Viagra copy Palpal, released right after the Viagra patent expired in 2012, has not lost its lead in the erectile dysfunction treatment market for six years after surpassing Viagra in the second quarter of 2013 and Cialis in the fourth quarter of 2015.
During the second quarter, Palpal maintained its leading position with sales of 5 billion won. Although it decreased 4.4 percent from the same period of the previous year, it far outpaced Chong Kun Dang's Cialis generic Cendom, the runner-up in the local erectile dysfunction market, by more than 2 billion won.
Chong Kun Dang's Cialis generic Cendom also maintained its second place after recording 2.7 billion won in sales in the second quarter, up 5.6 percent from the previous year.
The drug, released after the Cialis patent expired in Sep. 2015, gradually expanded its market share and overtook the original product Cialis in the fourth quarter of 2017, and overtook Viagra in the fourth quarter of 2018 to occupy the second place overall.
The two products have enjoyed popularity among local patients, particularly due to their lower price than originals.
Hanmi Pharm's Cialis generic Gugu ranked third overall for the first time after surpassing sales of Viagra and Cialis. Gugu's sales in the second quarter were 2.2 billion won, up 9.5 percent from the same period last year. Gugu overtook Cialis in the second quarter of 2019 and surpassed Viagra for the first time.
In comparison, original drugs from multinational pharmaceutical companies remained mired in a deep slump.
Viatris Korea's Viagra, once heralded as the king of erectile dysfunction treatment, ranked fourth by recording 2.1 billion won in sales in the second quarter, up 1 percent from the previous year. This was the first time that Viagra had fallen to fourth place in the erectile dysfunction treatment market.
Viagra has steadily lost its market share after losing the lead in 2013 to Palpal and second place to Cendom in 2018. Compared to its heyday, Viagra's sales have almost halved.
Lilly's Cialis also recorded 1.5 billion won in sales in the second quarter, down 6.5 percent from the previous year.
The decrease in sales comes even though Lilly signed a contract with Handok, a former sales partner, letting the latter take charge of domestic distribution, marketing, and sales activities of Cialis in 2018.
Despite the contract, the company has seen no rebounds so far.
The success of generic drugs is noteworthy as it is rare for generic products to exceed sales of original medicines due to the reliability that original products have built over a long period.
Market watchers attributed the success of erectile dysfunction generic treatments to the lack of insurance coverage of the treatment.
"In the non-reimbursable drug market, where the suppliers determine the price, generic drugs have been aggressively expanding market share by marketing their drugs at a much lower price than original drugs," an industry expert said. "At least in the Korean market, generic drugs have overwhelmed the originals as generics were able to grow due to low prices which gave easier access to consumers."