For years, Viagra has been the number one name brand for straightening out a man's sex life — mostly because the erectile dysfunction drug was made under an exclusive patent by the Pfizer corporation. But next Monday, December 11, Pfizer's exclusive rights to the drug expire, which means that generic brands of the formula are about to hit the market, for a whole lot cheaper than the traditional blue pill's cost.

To keep raking in cash on its mast-raising mainstay, Pfizer is already planning to launch a white generic pill of their own, which the company told the Associated Press will retail for half of name-brand Viagra's $65 per pill cost. Teva Pharmaceuticals, one of the largest generic-brand drugmakers, will also launch a alternative to the Pfizer brand on Monday, but it hasn't said how much it'll cost. One thing is for sure though — maintaining one's erection is about to become very affordable.

“We believe that the story for Viagra isn’t done. It’s just going to be a new chapter,” Jim Sage, president of U.S. brands for Pfizer's Essential Health division told the AP. Sage and Pfizer are actually taking huge steps to ward off competition and keep customers loyal. According to the AP, the drugmaker will roll out two programs in January that heavily discount even the name-brand drug. In one, uninsured men can get the name-brand blue pills for half the price through the company's Pfizer Direct home delivery program. For patients with insurance, a month's prescription of six to 10 pills may be available for as little as a $20 copay.

Make no mistake, Viagra isn't a miracle drug. Men who take erectile dysfunction drugs still report other problems in their sex lives. But when it first came onto the market in 1998, the pill was one of the most dramatic and widely-publicized treatments for erectile dysfunction, a syndrome that affects a staggering number of men as they age (as many as 40 percent of men in their 40s, and 50 percent of 50 year olds).

Related: 6 Reasons Your ED Drug Isn't Working

While Pfizer may have had the monopoly on Viagra, it soon had competition in the ED market. Other drug companies quickly realized that the demand for boner-pills was rock-solid, and set to work on similar drugs or other treatments. Cialis and Levitra both rose to make firm profits, and medical research quickly turned to the search for a "new Viagra."

How to Have Hotter, Safer Sex: 

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Most ED treatments work by dilating the blood vessels to give you a harder erection. The results are so dramatic that many men take these drugs recreationally, which can pose some serious health risks if they interact with other meds or preexisting conditions. As always, taking something that messes with your blood flow is a risk, so pop the happy penis pills with caution (and preferably a prescription — which won't cost you an arm and a leg anymore).