Faster Than Viagra

Viva Avanafil isn't a very catchy marketing slogan.

But a little company called Vivus Inc. says its impotence drug works twice as fast as Viagra in a study: Erections in half an hour or less.

Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra is the original and dominant player in the so-called erectile-dysfunction drug market, controlling about half of the $3.8 billion in annual sales. Eli Lilly & Co.'s rival drug Cialis makes up 40 percent of the market, and Bayer AG's Levitra has 10 percent.

Vivus, a money-losing biotech company in Mountain View, California, figures it can gain share because of its speedy results. By late next year or early 2011, it will apply for U.S. approval to sell Avanafil.

“Patients want on-demand therapy because when the mood is right, the mood is right,” CEO Leland Wilson tells Bloomberg News. “We’ve shown efficacy in 30 minutes, and no one else has done that.”

But it's going to be tough going up against the marketing machines of Pfizer, Lilly, and Bayer. Vivus lost $21 million in the third quarter and had only $226.9 million in cash as of September 30. Pfizer spent $9.5 billion through nine months this year on marketing and administrative costs alone, and that's a reduction from last year.

What's more, there are signs of a softening market, so to speak. Viagra sales fell 6 percent through nine months this year to $1.34 billion.

Vivus sells an older impotence treatment called Muse that was approved in the late '90s just before Viagra was approved. But unlike the little blue pill, Muse is a medicated pellet inserted through the urethra. Bad timing for a breakthrough product.

And speaking of timing, it's not great for Avanafil, either, says J.P. Morgan analyst Cory Kasimov.

Viagra's patent protection runs out in 2012, meaning Avanafil and all branded drugs will have cheap competitors. For a new entrant, it "could prove challenging in a market poised to go generic," Kasimov says in a note to investors.