Homegrown Jin’ge aims to be cheaper alternative to Viagra

A homegrown generic drug for erectile dysfunction (ED), known as Jin'ge, hit the market at pharmacy stores on Tuesday, eyeing a share of the market currently dominated by foreign drugs as the likes of Viagra.

Jin'ge means gold dagger-axe in Chinese.

Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings (GPH), China's largest drug maker by revenue, said Jin'ge is priced at 48 yuan ($7.85) per pill, or some 30 percent cheaper than the price for the same dose of Viagra on the Chinese market.

The company said patients will be able to purchase Jin'ge from drug stores in most Chinese cities by December.

GPH said the arrival of Jin'ge broke a 13-year-long monopoly of the anti-ED drug market by foreign companies and expects Jin'ge annual sales revenue to hit 500 million yuan to 1 billion in three to five years.

GPH said Jin'ge will also compete with a wide range of similar Chinese drugs that are sold between 30 yuan to 100 yuan.

About 46 percent of Chinese males over the age of 40, or an estimated 127 million men, suffer from ED, GPH said at the launch of Jin'ge in a press conference on September 18 in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.

Experts said the market could potentially be worth around 10 billion yuan.