Washington, May 7 (ANI): Men who are shy about needing help in the bedroom no longer have to go to the drugstore to buy that little blue pill anymore.
In a first for the drug industry, Pfizer Inc. said that the drugmaker will begin selling its popular erectile dysfunction pill Viagra to patients on its website, ABC News reported.
Men still will need a prescription to buy the blue, diamond-shaped pill on viagra.com, but they no longer have to face a pharmacist to get it filled.
And for those who are bothered by Viagra's steep 25 dollar-a-pill price, Pfizer is offering three free pills with the first order and 30 percent off the second one.
Pfizer's bold move upends the drug industry's distribution model.
Drugmakers don't sell medicines directly to patients. Instead, they sell in bulk to wholesalers, who then distribute the drugs to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors' offices.
But the world's second-largest drugmaker is trying a new strategy to tackle a problem that plagues the industry.
Illegal online pharmacies increasingly offer patients counterfeit versions of Viagra and other brand-name drugs for up to 95 percent off with no prescription needed.
Patients don't realize the drugs are most often fake or that legitimate pharmacies require a prescription.
If it works, drugmakers could begin selling other medicines that are rampantly counterfeited and sold online, particularly treatments for non-urgent conditions seen as embarrassing. (ANI)
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