In a bold move, Pfizer (the maker of Viagra and the second largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in the world) has announced that they plan to allow patients with a prescription for Viagra to fill it on their website and have it dispensed at any CVS pharmacy.
This is a new approach, as generally the drug companies have sold pills wholesale to drugstores for distribution and not retail to individual patients. Their stated concern is for patients who do not feel comfortable bringing in a prescription to their friendly neighborhood pharmacist. Kindly note that the retail price here is $25/pill (yes, twenty-five dollars a pill) which is double the cost at places like Costco or Sam's Club, and you still pick it up at a CVS pharmacy.
Other drug companies will be watching, since there are other medicines that patients may want to get in this way, such as other E.D. drugs, weight loss drugs and birth control medications.
This article also points out that another concern of Pfizer's part is the wide availability of counterfeit medications, especially Viagra. When patients have a poor response to a counterfeit, it reflects poorly on their product.
This is certainly a valid concern. If a legitimate on-line pharmacy is defined as one that requires a real prescription, is based in the U.S., only sells FDA-approved medications and has a secure server for credit card transactions, then only 2.5% of on-line pharmacies are legitimate, and the rest are shady at best. At worst, you can get contaminated fakes that are stamped out in a garage in a developing country.
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