Musings on the launch delay.
There are two widely divergent ways of explaning why it has been two years since Vitaros was approved by Health Canada (end of 2010) and still no major launch.
Cup is empty view:
The selection of a licensee for the Canadian market was badly handled with many missteps resulting in the delay of the Abbott selection and announcement. On top of that, the contract was not tight allowing Abbott to dwaddle without non-performance penalties. Abbott, which has (arguably) a competing testosterone product, is less than anxious to give Vitaros a boost for the ED market. Finally, by delaying the launch, the pps has been driven down so that the market cap is under $60M making the company easy pickings for a predatory takeover. This view has been advocated by some on YMB.
Cup is overflowing view:
The selection process was highly competetive making it long. The announcement timing may have been botched but the delay was on the order of a few months not years. (No big deal.) Abbott clearly saw the blockbuster potential of Vitaros and knew that the PDE5 pharmas (e.g., Pfizer-Viagra) would jump on any misstep to discredit Vitaros, both to urologists and the public. So Abbott charted a conservative/careful ( but necessarily longer) roll out with urologists not only to establish credibility with urologists but also with other Canadian MDs that rely on the opinions of urologists for ED treatment.
While I am cup-is-half-empty by nature, I am inclined to go with the latter and not the former. I am still puzzled by the decision by Damaj to license out to so many different pharmas. And if Abbott was so sold on the prospects of Vitaros, why did it not outbid to license in the UK or Germany? Would that not have given Abbott more incentive in Canada? Maybe Carlo can get Damaj to write memoirs.
