Generic Viagra Delivers Hidden Billionaire Duo in Brazil

The day after Pfizer Inc.’s patent for Viagra expired in Brazil, Carlos Sanchez flooded pharmacies with his generic erectile dysfunction pills. It was a day his army of lawyers, researchers and marketers had been preparing for more than three years, even winning a bid to move up the patent’s expiration date.

At a cost of 10 reais ($4.39), Sanchez’s pills were 5 reais cheaper than Pfizer’s, which had cut its prices in half just weeks before the patent ended. Sanchez’s copy of the little blue pill gave him an early foothold into the market for erectile dysfunction medicine in Brazil, where sales have quintupled in the last four years.