Viagra Keeps Pfizer’s China Sales Rising

Chinese men have long used traditional medicines such as deer antler, caterpillar fungus, and wolfberry to treat impotence. In recent years, Pfizer has found success touting a different remedy: better sex via its little blue pill. Men on the mainland are listening, sparking a 47 percent surge in Viagra sales in the country in 2014, says Pfizer citing data from IMS Health. That’s helped to offset the 24 percent drop in total international revenue for the drug last year.

Shifting cultural trends brought on by China’s decade-long economic boom have fueled demand, and Pfizer’s extensive patient-education campaign about ED has kept users loyal even as Viagra lost its patent protection last year and cheaper competitors have emerged. As China has loosened restrictions on discussing sexual health, people have paid more attention to that aspect of their lives, says Ma Xiaonian, a clinical sexologist and deputy director of the China Sexology Association. “When one is warm and well fed, one will think about lust,” says Ma, quoting an ancient Chinese saying.