By Robert Frank
www.thesuburban.com
Cloned competition is driving down the cost of Pfizer’s potent blue pill.
Pfizer—whose Canadian headquarters are located in Kirkland, Quebec—announced, Nov. 22, that effective immediately, it would drop the price of its popular erectile dysfunction drug across the country.
“We are lowering original Viagra price to be in line with generic versions because we are committed to ensuring that Viagra patients continue to have access to the original—made by Pfizer, and at a competitive price—simply by asking their pharmacist,” Scott Wilks, Pfizer Canada’s general manager of established products said in a statement.
The drug colossus previously announced, Oct. 28, that it planned “to eliminate approximately 11 per cent of its Canadian workforce.”
Corporate communications director Rhonda O’Gallagher told The Suburban that the company had lost patents on several drugs which had prevueously provided a the pharmaceutical firm with a steady revenue stream.
Although several news outlets reported that the brunt of the ensuing job losses would be felt at the company’s Kirkland head office, O’Gallagher explained that in fact many of the people affected work remotely across Canada, selling drugs to individual family physicians.
Among the drugs that Pfizer has recently lost patents on are cholesterol reducer Lipitor—the best selling drug in pharmaceutical history—and Norvasc, a popular treatment for angina and high blood pressure.
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