By Andrew Jack in London and Richard Milne in Frankfurt

Published: January 11 2005 02:00 | Last
updated: January 11 2005 02:00

GlaxoSmithKline, the British-based pharmaceuticals group, yesterday
confirmed the disappointing performance of its male erectile dysfunction
treatment Levitra with the sale back to Bayer of the marketing rights in
most of the world outside the US.

Bayer, the German group, said it had paid €208m ($272m) to buy
out GSK as joint promoter of the treatment in Europe, Asia, the Pacific,
Latin America and Canada.
The move came just four years after Bayer received an undisclosed amount
for joint marketing of the drug, also known as vardenafil.
It also confirmed GSK's inability to raise sales for Levitra, in spite
of hopes that it would provide a "blockbuster" to rival Pfizer's Viagra
and Eli Lilly's Cialis.
Levitra had only £70m ($131m) in worldwide sales in 2003. It had
attempted to raise its profile through sports sponsorship, supporting
the US National Football League and winning endorsement by Mike Ditka,
the league's former head coach. Outside the US market, where direct
consumer advertising of the drug is permitted, the company is believed
to have been frustrated at its inability to break into the difficult
men's health market.
GSK will continue jointly to promote Levitra in the US with Bayer
through its distributor Schering-Plough, and has retained the rights in
ahandful of other markets, including Italy.
Viagra, which reported sales of $1.88bn in 2003, and uses the slogan
"get back to mischief", remains the clear market leader for erectile
dysfunction drugs, or so-called PD5 inhibitors.
Cialis, with sales of $203m in 2003, is marketed with the claim that it
is longer lasting, and able to deliver results to fight impotence
swiftly.
Bayer admitted that the launch of Levitra had failed to reach
expectations.
"The growth of both the product and the [erectile dysfunction] market
have been not so good. We must invest more but it has a lot of
potential," it said.
"This shows that Levitra has not been as successful as initially
thought. But it also shows that the erectile dysfunction drug market in
general has not grown as fast as people had expected," said Andreas
Theisen of WestLB.

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional    
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."
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