Has the "Domestic Viagra" halo faded? Baiyunshan's Jinge sold nearly 8 million fewer tablets last year, marking the second consecutive year of decline. At its peak, sales exceeded 100 million tablets in a single year.

Every reporter | Chen Xing Every editor | Cheng Peng Huang Sheng

Reporter | Chen Xing

Editor | Cheng Peng Huang Sheng Du Bo Proofreader | Jin Mingyu

In the hidden corners of men’s health in China, a market battle that has lasted for over twenty years is ushering in a new change.

Once, a little blue pill defined an era. As the world’s first oral ED (erectile dysfunction) treatment drug, Pfizer’s Viagra burst onto the scene in 1998 and entered China in 2000, making the term “Viagra” synonymous with this category. Following closely, Eli Lilly’s Cialis entered the market with a differentiated positioning of “36-hour efficacy,” forming a three-way power struggle among foreign companies with Viagra and Bayer’s Levitra. It wasn’t until 2014 that Baiyunshan’s Jin Ge appeared as the first domestic generic, tearing open a rift with price advantages and rewriting the market into a new situation of “domestic brand dominance, original research drugs retreating.”

However, as we approach 2026, the stories behind these three names are being rewritten. Viagra faces continued shrinkage after the patent cliff, Cialis is gradually being divested by its parent company Eli Lilly, and Jin Ge, which once surged ahead, is now encountering its own “midlife crisis.”

“Viagra” has been listed in China for 20 years:

The old drug has reached a crossroads of fate

Viagra, Cialis, and Jin Ge all belong to the same class of drugs—PDE5 inhibitors. They share the same pharmacological mechanism, but their origins, ingredients, and market positions are entirely different.

Viagra is the origin of the term “Viagra.” Its active ingredient is sildenafil citrate, developed by Pfizer, and it is the world’s first oral ED drug, as well as the indisputable symbol of this category. For over a decade after its launch, it virtually monopolized the global market.

Cialis, on the other hand, is the underdog’s comeback. Its active ingredient is tadalafil, developed by Eli Lilly, and it entered China in 2005. The biggest difference from Viagra is in the duration of efficacy—Cialis lasts up to 36 hours and is the only PDE5 inhibitor approved for both ED and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

Jin Ge is the latecomer and the disruptor. It has the exact same ingredient as Viagra—sildenafil—but it is a domestic generic drug. Upon its launch in 2014, Baiyunshan set a simple and aggressive strategy: a 30% price drop for the same dosage, halving the single-use dosage, leading to a 60% lower cost per dose for patients compared to the original drug. This move reshaped the landscape for the next ten years.

From the listing of Viagra in China in 2000, this urology drug market has undergone a commercial transformation from “foreign monopoly” to “domestic substitution,” and then to “chaotic competition.” Foreign capital has shifted from monopoly to “divestment,” while domestic generics have transitioned from rapid growth to decline, bringing this old drug once again to a crossroads of fate.

Among them, Viagra, as the pioneer, has fallen from being a “miracle drug” priced at over a hundred yuan per pill to a participant in the price war, yet it still occupies a place in the outpatient market due to its brand legacy.

Cialis, as a differentiated competitor, has transitioned from being Eli Lilly’s core asset to a divested non-core business, but after being shifted to Menarini, it still maintained about 935 million yuan in sales in 2024.

Jin Ge, as the pioneer of domestic substitution, started from zero to become the industry leader, but has now fallen into the dilemma of “declining both quantity and price” amidst the intensifying competition in generics. A new wave of domestic innovative drugs is attempting to escape the mire of price wars through differentiated clinical value.

Cialis’ “exit”:

From a star product to a divested asset

Cialis’ story is a typical textbook case of the lifecycle of original research drugs.

In 2007, Cialis’ global sales first surpassed $1.2 billion, nearly catching up with Viagra’s sales at the time. By 2017, its global sales reached a peak of $2.323 billion. However, thereafter, patent expiration and the impact of generics caused this growth curve to plummet sharply.

In the Chinese market, Cialis faced another blow. In April 2020, the patent for Cialis’ ED use expired in China. In the same year, tadalafil tablets were included in the second batch of national drug procurement catalogs, and Eli Lilly failed to win the bid. That year, sales of Cialis in hospitals plummeted nearly 60%. The consequences of failing to win the procurement bid were immediate—data from 2024 showed that among public hospitals, over 30% of tadalafil sales were captured by Zhengda Tianqing, while the original Cialis accounted for less than 20%.

In 2021, Eli Lilly sold the rights to Cialis in mainland China to the Italian biopharmaceutical company Menarini. At that time, Eli Lilly stated in media interviews that this move was to concentrate resources and accelerate the development of Eli Lilly’s pharmaceutical business in five major therapeutic areas: diabetes, oncology, autoimmune diseases, pain, and neurodegenerative diseases. Once a heavyweight product, it has since become a “non-core asset” of the parent company.

Today, this divestment is still ongoing. In March 2026, Yuli Pharmaceutical announced the acquisition of all rights to Cialis in Hong Kong, Macau, and South Korea, including trademark rights, product registration approvals, and production technology licenses. After this acquisition, Yuli Pharmaceutical expanded its market presence for Cialis rights in Asia from 8 to 11 regions.

However, after shifting to the outpatient market, Cialis has found new breathing space. Data from Minet shows that in 2024, its sales in hospitals dropped to only 53.2 million yuan, while sales in pharmacies and online stores reached 426 million yuan and 509 million yuan, respectively, totaling 935 million yuan.

On March 24, the reporter sent questions about Cialis’ rights in other regional markets to Eli Lilly’s email, but no response was received by the time of publication.

Jin Ge’s “midlife crisis”:

From soaring advancement to a downturn

If Cialis’ exit is the fate of original research drugs, then Jin Ge’s decline reflects the collective dilemma of the generic drug market.

Jin Ge is Baiyunshan’s core product, achieving over 700 million yuan in sales in its first year, and in 2016, its market share soared to 49%, surpassing Viagra to become the industry leader. By 2017, its market share further rose to 55%, solidifying its top position. In 2019, Jin Ge officially surpassed Viagra in sales and volume, becoming the top ED drug in China. In 2023, Jin Ge’s sales reached a historical peak of 1.29 billion yuan, with sales volume exceeding 100 million pills, maintaining a gross profit margin of over 90%. It not only became Baiyunshan’s most profitable product but also a symbolic case of domestic generics’ comeback.

However, a turning point arrived in 2024. Baiyunshan’s annual report showed that Jin Ge’s sales dropped nearly 20% year-on-year, with sales volume declining over 10%, and inventory surging nearly 50%. The decline continued into 2025—annual sales were approximately 79.87 million pills, down nearly 8 million pills from the previous year, with revenue declining by 26.18% year-on-year. This marked Jin Ge’s second consecutive year of declining sales and revenue after the dual drop in 2024.

As of March 2025, nearly 50 companies in China have obtained approval for sildenafil generic drugs, with a cumulative total of 137 applications for generics accepted; over 70 companies have entered the market for tadalafil generics, with more than 100 approvals (including multiple specifications).

The influx of players has directly led to a price war. In 2020, Qilu Pharmaceutical’s sildenafil citrate tablets were quoted at 2.08 yuan per pill, a 92% drop, becoming the only exclusive bid winner in that year’s procurement, with Jin Ge and Viagra being eliminated. By the first half of 2023, Qianwei’s market share in public hospitals was nearly twice that of Viagra, while Jin Ge’s sales in public hospitals had almost reached zero.

Even in the outpatient market, the price war has not ceased. On e-commerce platforms, the maximum discount for Viagra’s 50mg tablets has dropped to 29.8 yuan per pill, a more than 70% reduction from the initial price of over a hundred yuan. Jin Ge’s products of the same specification have also long since exited the hundred-yuan era.

Jin Ge’s “midlife crisis” is essentially the inevitable consequence of the peak of generic drug benefits. When the time window for first generics closes, when the price war hits rock bottom, and when the squeeze on the existing market approaches its limit, the growth story can no longer be told. However, from the perspective of Baiyunshan’s main products, Jin Ge remains its highest revenue-generating product.

How to break through?

If the “internal competition” on the supply side is the visible thread of this change, then the changes on the demand side are deeper currents.

Faced with the dilemma, players are seeking new breakthrough directions. Innovation in dosage forms is one path. A search of the National Medical Products Administration database reveals an increasing diversity of forms, from ordinary tablets to orally disintegrating tablets and dry suspension agents. New dosage forms, such as orally disintegrating tablets, oral suspensions, and sublingual films, are attempting to steal users from traditional tablets with experiences like “no need for water,” “melts in the mouth,” and “discreet consumption.”

Domestic Class 1 innovative drugs have also begun to appear in abundance this year. On July 8 and July 22, 2025, two new domestic ED drugs were approved in a span of half a month: Wangshan Wangshui’s Aongweida (sildenafil) and Yangtze River Pharmaceutical’s Taituotuo (tadalafil), aiming to challenge the existing landscape of PDE5 inhibitors with better side effect profiles and higher selectivity.

From the “blue pill” era initiated by Viagra, this game is now entering a new stage. Original research drugs are being divested, generics are facing internal competition, new dosage forms are breaking through, and demand is changing. When the “Viagras” collectively face a midlife crisis, the real question may not be “who will win,” but rather, what new stories can still emerge from this market?