Product Team Cialis: Getting Ready to Market

Introduction:

The case is about Cialis, a medicine that was developed by Lilly ICOS LLC pharmaceutical company to treat male impotence. Basically the case presents holistic view of the aggressive marketing strategy of the company to launch this product. It was not an easy task considering that the market was dominated by Viagra, a drug used for the same purpose which is made by Pfizer. Lilly ICOS LLC was formed as a joint venture between the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company and a small biotech startup ICOS in September 1998.

The Development of Cialis:

ICOS was working on a drug similar to Viagra. Eventually they found a formula which was better than Viagra in a sense that it had less side effects on ED patients than Viagra and also its effectiveness duration was also much better than Viagra. For example the half-life of Viagra was 3-5 hours and that of this new under development drug was 17 hours. This was a major breakthrough for ICOS. But they had not launched a drug in the market before so they did not any experience related to marketing and getting the drug approved from FDA. So to make this drug a commercial product, ICOS had to partner with a pharmaceutical company. The ideal partner found was Eli Lilly and Company, a renowned pharma company. So as a result of the joint venture, Lilly ICOS LLC was formed. A product team consisting of 8 managers was raised for Cialis. 4 managers were from Eli Lilly and 4 were from ICOS.

Competition faced by Cialis:

Launching Cialis was a daunting task for Lilly ICOS since the erectile dysfunction drug market was dominated by Viagra, made by Pfizer. Since the last 3 years, Viagra alone has been generating $1 Billion in sales revenues for Pfizer. Also, Pfizer was famous for its robust and aggressive marketing strategies