The recent sales figures for the 4th quarter that were released recently for the drug Cialis will have market analysts questioning the wisdom of Icos selling out to Eli Lilly at a share price of $34 per share.

The figures show an almost 30% increase in sales of the erectile drug Cialis from the same period a year ago at nearly $270 million dollars.

Overall Cialis sold just under 1 billion dollars over the whole of 2006 making it the second best selling impotence drug in the world. In 2005 the sales for Cialis were just under $750 million dollars.

The profits that Cialis brought in were much increased due to the fact that last year spending in Marketing was reduced and this is partly because the drug is slowly becoming as famous as Viagra the no.1 selling impotence drug from Pfizer and thus it needs less marketing for its sales.

The policy of huge marketing budgets for Cialis is now paying off and the rewards are being reaped.

In the United States Cialis costs about $12 for one tablet and many see this a very good value because the drug works for as long as 35 hours in some cases rather than just 4 hours in the cases of Viagra and Levitra.

The vote on the full control of Cialis took place on January 25th and Eli Lilly is confident that they will get enough shareholder votes for the deal to go ahead.

The biggest opponent of the deal is a 5% shareholder called HealthCor that claims that the commercial possibilities of Cialis have not been fully tapped in the erectile dysfunction markets and also in other possible uses for Cialis such as the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension.

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