Viagra (ingredient: sildenafil), the favored treatment for erectile dysfunction, is suffering a continued sales decline and losing out to generic copies.

According to U-BIST data, Pfizer’s Viagra sold only 794 million won ($715,350) in July, down 6.7 percent from 872 million won in June. Year on year, its sales plunged 11.5 percent from 897 million won in July last year.

Viagra’s revenue fell more quickly since its patent expired and generic drugs hit the market.

Between January 2017 and July 2018, Viagra’s monthly sales exceeded 1 billion won only twice – 1.046 billion won in February last year and 1.002 billion won in December.
Viagra managed to sell 800-900 million won recently, but the number went down below 800 million won in July.

Chong Kun Dang’s Cialis (ingredient: tadalafil), which used to lead the market with Viagra, also performed poorly. Prescriptions of Cialis declined to 556 million won in July from 590 million won in June.

Among the top 10 products, the fall of Cialis’ revenue was the most significant. Sales of Cialis plummeted 29.4 percent in July from a year earlier.

Against the weak sales of the original drugs, generic drugs such as Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s Palpal- and Gugu-series products topped the outpatient prescriptions of erectile dysfunction treatments. Chong Kun Dang’s Cendom was closely chasing Hanmi’s drugs.
Hanmi’s Palpal, a Viagra copy, sold 2.66 billion won in July, even though the figure was smaller than 2.93 billion won a year earlier.

Gugu, an imitation of Cialis, ranked second with 1.09 billion won sales in July, which was a 12.6 percent drop from a year earlier.

Chong Kun Dang’s Cendom ranked third with a slight fall in revenue. Its prescriptions in July slid 6.8 percent year-on-year to 863 million won.

Dong-A ST’s Zydena and SK Chemicals’ Mvix S came in the top 10 list. Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s Taor and Kolmar Korea’s Kamalafil posted more than 300 million won prescriptions, respectively, in July.

Hanmi’s Gugutams, which treats both erectile dysfunction and enlarged prostate, maintained to sell more than 200 million won in July. Its prescriptions inched up to 236 million won in July from 233 million won in the previous month.