How Viagra used ecommerce to take on the counterfeiters

Last month, Stephen Whiteside of WARC attended the ePharma Summit in New York City. Over the next few weeks, you'll see some of the insights he captured from the event.How Viagra used ecommerce to take on the counterfeitersAs the subject of more than 20 million online searches a year, Viagra – Pfizer's erectile dysfunction drug – generates a level of web traffic that would make many brands jealous. Less enviable is the fact a third of these inquiries lead consumers to sites selling copies of the product, not the real thing.While elaborating on this problem, Lauren Ljubicich, Pfizer's director of marketing, told delegates at the ePharma Summit – an event held by the Institute for International Research (IIR) in New York in February 2014 – that a quarter of men with erectile dysfunction (ED) had purchased Viagra from the internet. But as 25% of the market for PDE5, the group of drugs tackling this condition, is attributable to fakes, it was apparent that lots of Pfizer customers – all with prescriptions – were being misled."Twenty-five percent of men thinking they're taking Viagra aren't actually taking Viagra," Ljubicich said. And although consumers are frequently aware of this possibility, it is often impossible to distinguish an official vendor from one offering imitations, as the latter platforms look entirely authentic. "There's not a huge difference between the two," she continued. Further adding to the confusion, unapproved digital merchants regularly provid...
Source: ePharma Summit - Category: Medical Marketing and PR Tags: Buying pharmaceuticals online ePharma ePharma Summit Viagra online sales Source Type: blogs