Charlene Smith
Andrew Oberholzer, senior group product manager at Pfizer, makers of Viagra, is a tired man. He speaks to an average of 10 journalists a day – all asking the same questions. He is overseeing the mailing of 30 000 samples and medical information to doctors and pharmacies.
Oberholzer is under the average age of men for whom Viagra would most commonly be prescribed, but he could be forgiven for having no libido this week.
The sedate offices of Pfizer have been enlivened by a little blue pill. The company is receiving about 500 calls a day from some of the estimated 200 000 South African men their executives believe will need to use Viagra.
Pressure on the switchboard has been so intense, said a Pfizer executive who declined to be named, that the company bought cellphones for all its senior staff to ensure they could communicate with the company effectively.
The drug which goes on the market next Tuesday or Wednesday has seen the local makers remarkably ill-prepared. At the weekend staff were roped in to package the pills and insert the new product description leaflets written to conform with South African Medicines Control Council (MCC) regulations. They do not have a public relations staffer, and were battling to field calls from the media, the public, doctors and the trade.
Oberholzer said they were not prepared to divulge their projections for sales. “It all depends on whether men come forward for treatment because of the stigma attached to erectile dysfunction, even though more people are recognising this as a medical condition.
“Viagra is the first simple oral treatment. Previous treatments included injecting into the penis, or inserting pellets into the urethra. Viagra can be taken an hour beforehand and acts naturally, it is not an aphrodisiac.”
>From the time the company received the go- ahead from the MCC last Friday they went into overdrive. Oberholzer said: “There have never been so many precautions taken with a drug in the history of pharmaceuticals in this country.
“We have had to put together – under instructions from the MCC – a pack for every registered doctor and pharmacist in the country. This meant updating package inserts, printing patient information leaflets, and an adverse event monitoring form [to enable doctors to inform Pfizer of any adverse reactions to the drug].”
South Africa is the first country in the world to demand this – but this was after more than 60 patients had died from heart- related problems after using the drug in the United States.
Oberholzer says since last October, Pfizer has held extensive education meetings for doctors, emergency room staff and pharmacists across South Africa.
The drug is not expected to be Pfizer’s major product in South Africa – even though it is the product that will ensure consumers learn how to spell the company name. Oberholzer said their biggest-selling drug in South Africa was Norvac, an anti-hypertensive drug and the first effective drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. (For those who might forget to take Viagra?)
Viagra is not cheap. The little blue pill will set men back around R100.