Pfizer's Stock Soars On Success of Drug; New Impotence Pill Boosts Firm's Value
Enthusiasm about a new treatment for sexual impotence drove the shares of Pfizer Inc. to an all-time high in brisk trading yesterday. At day's end, it ranked as the top U.S. drug company in stock market value, passing Merck & Co.</br></br>Analysts variously estimated that doctors are writing 15,000 to 40,000 new prescriptions a day for Viagra, Pfizer's $10-a-dose pill against impotence. Even if the lower number is correct, Viagra could turn out to be one of the most successful product launches in pharmaceutical history.</br></br>Viagra was licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on March 27, and has been on pharmacy shelves in most parts of the country for about a week. Most previous treatments involved creams, implants or injections. Urologists and other doctors who treat impotence say that men who have never talked about their problem are coming out of the woodwork to demand the pill.</br></br>"They're calling in on a daily basis," said Harold Bondy, an Arlington urologist who has already written about 20 prescriptions. "They basically have heard about the tablet and they want to try it."</br></br>Positive news about Viagra's sales drove Pfizer's stock price to a record $113.75 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, though by the close the stock had fallen a bit, to $113.37 1/2. That was a jump of nearly 8 percent from Friday's close.