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Erectile Dysfunction Drugs in Japan: Marketing Issues and Strategies
Decision Resources, Inc, Dec 2005, Pages: 12
Japan--the second largest single-country pharmaceutical market in the world--represents a very large and relatively untapped erectile dysfunction (ED) therapeutic market. After providing an overview of the ED landscape in Japan, this report examines why promotional campaigns for the ED drugs available in Japan have failed to generate the level of sales that would be expected given ED therapies' track record in other markets and the potential patient population in Japan. We hypothesize that, instead of helping alleviate any stigma attached to ED in Japan, manufacturers' campaigns have actually exacerbated the challenge.
Business Implications
- A complex regulatory system and dramatic cultural differences from the West make Japan a difficult target for drug marketers, especially when it comes to controversial indications such as erectile dysfunction. Drugmakers need to remain mindful of cultural factors throughout the marketing process.
- The ED market in Japan is currently dominated by the two phosphodiesterase (PDE)-5 inhibitors sildenafil (Pfizer's Viagra) and vardenafil (Bayer's Levitra). Combined sales in 2004 reached $74.3 million, but we believe the Japanese market offers much greater potential.
- Japan and the United States—countries with similar per capita levels of industrialization and health care expenditure—differ in ED products sales by roughly one order of magnitude. The high discrepancy in sales per eligible male prompts questions about whether ED therapeutics have been oversold to U.S. patients or undersold to Japanese patients. Although there is a little doubt that the DTC advertising channel helped ramp up sales of Pfizer's Viagra in the United States (DTC efforts are forbidden in Japan), there is no reason to believe that the market in Japan has reached a ceiling.
- Both standard and mobile aspects of the Japanese-language Internet hold unexplored potential for marketing ED medications in Japan. For a considerable proportion of Internet users in Japan, mobile phones represent the only way to reach the Internet. Because it accommodates the Japanese public both technologically and psychologically, future marketing efforts for controversial indications like ED might do well to employ the mobile mode.
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