Do you want all of the ease of ordering Viagra online, with none of the risk that you’re helping support a global spam empire? Soon, you may be in luck! Sort of. Pfizer, makers of Viagra, announced recently that they plan to sell the famed erectile-dysfunction drug directly to consumers, instead of to pharmacies through wholesalers.

Yes, you’ll still have to have a valid prescription, the Associated Press reports. Yes, you’ll still have to go talk to an actual doctor. But if for some reason you have a fear of handing a prescription for the world’s most famous boner pill over to your friendly neighborhood pharmacist…well, you really shouldn’t, because health-care professionals really have seen it all. If you’d rather order online, though, Pfizer wants to open that option up to you.

This isn’t about Viagra, though. Not really. It’s not even about people too shy to drop off a prescription. It’s about Pfizer disrupting the normal ways that drugs are sold. Pfizer still has the exclusive rights to produce the drug: there is no generic version yet. It isn’t just fear of saying “impotence” to one’s doctor that keeps people from filling their prescriptions locally, it’s the expense that drives people to shop online. Pfizer will have mail-order prescription outfit CVS/Caremark fill online orders, and the question remains: will Pfizer charge a low enough price to make a dent in the counterfeit and gray markets?

Bashful? Pfizer to begin selling Viagra directly to patients online [Daily News]

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