The Little Blue Pill: An Oral History of Viagra
The story of the drug that changed sex and made billions.
Talk show host Jay Leno (right) does a Viagra gag with fitness personality Richard Simmons on July 16, 1998.
Photographer: Margaret Norton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
Viagra’s incredible run ended this morning with the release of a cheaper, generic version of the world’s first impotence-fighting pill.
And what a run it was. Approved 19 years ago, Pfizer Inc.’s Viagra ushered in a pharmaceutical and cultural revolution, put the phrase “erectile dysfunction” in the medical mainstream, launched a thousand bad jokes and made friskiness a staple of prime-time television commercials. Bloomberg News spoke to people at the center of the phenomenon. Their comments have been edited for clarity.