A company in China that manufactures a viagra-like drug saw its stocks increase sharply after publishing a report that 140 million men in the country are suffering from erectile dysfunction.
The drug maker, Hebei Changshan Biochemical Pharmaceutical, announced on Tuesday that its subsidiary firm in Jiangsu province has been licensed to produce sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient in Viagra.
Changshan Biochemical’s share price then rose to its maximum daily limit of 10% on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on May 16. Further gains were recorded in trading the following day.
The company, part of China’s hi-tech enterprise program, has received funding from the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s economic planning agency.
In a statement, Changshan Biochemical clarified that the statistic came from a 2014 report by Guosen Securities, a state-owned financial services firm. It was not subjected to verification.
“The company has obtained the relevant approval for production of sildenafil citrate tablets, but the new product’s market size, promotion and market share may be lower than expected.
“The future sales of this product has great uncertainty and there is a risk of increased market competition for this product. Investors are advised to make prudent decisions and pay attention to investment risks.”
Du Zuoyuan, author of the Guosen report, then admitted that the data came from Wang Xiaofeng, a Peking University urologist who claimed in 2010 that the overall morbidity rate for erectile dysfunction among Chinese men was 26.1% — and 40.2% among those aged 40 and above.
