Now that Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) has started to sell Viagra online at Viagra.com, can Cialis.com and Levitra.com be far behind? These two other drugs face the same black market trouble Viagra does. Pfizer claims the black market costs it hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and the problem being industrywide means that the industry quickly will share Pfizer’s model.
Under Pfizer’s new system, men armed with a prescription can order their drugs, have the order filed at CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) and then mailed. Pfizer describes the benefits of the system this way:
CONVENIENCE AND PRIVACY of ordering from your home with FREE shipping in the continental U.S.
CONFIDENCE in knowing that your order is being handled by trusted pharmacists and that your information is secure.
SAVINGS AND OFFERS found on VIAGRA.com that can also be redeemed at your local pharmacy or preferred online pharmacy with a valid prescription for VIAGRA.
Cialis and Levitra can, and probably have to, match the initiative immediately. Through programs for the three, online erectile dysfunction products can follow a system pioneered by companies such as Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) in which consumers can buy everything from books to consumer electronics to clothing. Perhaps the three drugs should have joined these other products years ago. It could have blunted the rise of the black market and made the sales of them easier for the consumer, a benefit that other categories of products discovered years ago.
The marketers at Cialis maker Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) and Levitra maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK) are too intelligent and aggressive to allow Pfizer’s plan go unchallenged for too long.
All the men who were embarrassed about their erectile problems can now sneak on to the Internet, get their pills delivered to their homes, and, by the way, get three free pills in the process.
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