Generic Viagra to be available in late 2017

Generic Viagra will hit the market more than two years earlier than expected under a settlement reached by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and the maker of the impotence drug, Pfizer Inc.

Teva can enter the market on Dec. 11, 2017, and will pay patent royalties through the expiration of the Viagra patent in April 2020, New York-based Pfizer said in a statement. Other terms weren’t disclosed.

Viagra, whose chemical name is sildenafil citrate, is one of Pfizer’s best-known medicines. The drug’s sales totaled $2.05 billion in 2012, its best year ever. Pfizer this year began selling the blue pill through a company-sponsored website to combat counterfeit versions sold online.

The medicine came from a group of compounds considered during research to treat high blood pressure and angina. The assistance with erectile dysfunction was a side effect discovered during testing, and the patent, issued in 2002, is for use of the compound to treat impotence.

Some aspects of the patent were earlier rejected in 2010 because it was similar to a Chinese herb known as Horny Goat Weed. Teva lost its bid to invalidate the rest of the patent at trial and was appealing the case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dismissed the appeals Tuesday.