Impotence Drugs Trigger a Marketing Battle

Icos has paired with Eli Lilly(LLY Quote - Cramer on LLY - Stock Picks) to market the drug -- and the strategy appears to have paid off. Cialis has moved into second place. Blum says the overall market for impotence drugs will continue to expand, but he added that his original marketing goal remains unchanged: Convince Viagra users to try Cialis.

Although Levitra has slipped into third place, the companies behind it say they are pleased with its performance. "This isn't a horse race," said Michael Fleming, director of U.S. product communications for GlaxoSmithKline(GSK Quote - Cramer on GSK - Stock Picks), which is co-marketing the drug with its developer Bayer(BAY Quote - Cramer on BAY - Stock Picks).

Levitra's marketers recently changed their most visible advertising campaign. Early TV ads featured Mike Ditka, the former football player and coach, talking about the drug without saying what it does. The ad placed second among prescription-drug commercials in the recognition survey conducted by the IAG research firm.

Ditka has since been sent to the TV sidelines and replaced by a female actress who talks about Levitra's benefits for her partner while an announcer's voice-over mentions possible side effects (including extended erections). Fleming said the new commercial represents "a natural progression" in marketing strategy. "The focus is still on men," said Fleming. "They have to recognize the condition and take action."

Handicapping The Race

At this stage, Viagra still has a healthy lead, according to NDCHealth, a health care-data and information-services company. For the week ended April 23, Viagra had two-thirds of new U.S. prescriptions. Cialis placed second with 19.4% while Levitra had 14.1%.

For the same period, Viagra had 77.1% of total prescriptions, Cialis had 12.1% and Levitra had 10.8%. For total dollar sales, Viagra captured 78.2% of the market, Cialis had 12% and Levitra had 9.7%. (NDC tracks retail and mail-order prescriptions; the dollar figures represent the wholesale average cost of what pharmacies pay wholesalers).

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