Bob from Houston
It's love potion number $9.50
Impotence may have met match as Viagra nears
FDA approval
by April Adamson
Daily News Staff Writer
It costs about $9.50 per pill.
But on a steamy Saturday night when the mood is
right, its street value
would be considerably higher.
It's called Viagra, a potent cure-all for male
impotence that has the
potential to become one of the best-selling drugs
on the market,
according to pharmaceutical analysts.
The small, blue prescription pill, which has been
tested in Philadelphia
and across the country, is expected to gain FDA
approval within the
next week.
The pill stimulates the ability, for up to six
hours, to have an erection in
men who otherwise wouldn't be able to perform.
It's already generating
profits on Wall Street, where stock for the Pfizer
pharmaceutical
company inflated from $73 in October to $92 last
week.
Experts say the pill has the potential to become a
$2 billion-a-year
industry. It may be one of the most effective
impotence drugs ever
created.
But those same experts fear the new oral
prescription medicine also has
the potential to become a recreational love drug
sought by misinformed
men looking to become sexual superheroes.
"Could this become a recreational drug? To some
degree it will be,"
said Scott Shevick, a pharmaceutical analyst in
Manhattan. "There's an
abuse potential to this drug."
Experts predict Viagra, if approved, could be
prescribed "off-label" in
much the same way Prozac has gotten negative press
for being used to
treat everything from manic depression to teen
angst.
"There's always the concern it [ Viagra ] will be
used off-label, or not
for an approved indication," Shevick said. "But
the doctor also runs the
risk of malpractice."
The Pfizer company's Manhattan office had little
to say yesterday on the
drug or its imminent approval. "Since we really
don't have FDA
approval, we aren't responding much," a company
rep said.
But doctors who've conducted tests in Philadelphia
say pill-popping
Casanovas will be disappointed to discover the
medication was
designed to enhance sexual performance only in men
with legitimate
sexual dysfunction -- and not in otherwise
healthy, virile men.
"This is not a libido enhancer," said Dr. E. James
Seidmon, a professor
of urology who has conducted a phase of the drug
study at Temple
University Hospital.
"For guys getting normal erections, it won't have
an effect. This is a
revolutionary treatment that will benefit a
cross-section of men to
restore their natural responses," Seidmon said.
Impotence, which in 90 percent of cases results
from physical ailments
such as diabetes, spinal injury and neurological
problems, is also
triggered by psychological factors, including
anxiety, doctors say.
An estimated 10 million to 20 million men
nationwide are impotent, and
about 70 percent of them would respond well to the
wonder drug,
doctors predict.
Analysts estimate at least 10 million men will
take an average of one pill
a week, contributing $36 a month to the drug's
nationwide sales. Those
estimates do not include overseas sales to another
20 million or more
potential patients.
Viagra, developed nearly four years ago as a heart
medication to
improve blood flow by relaxing veins, was found to
be effective in
increasing blood flow to the male genitals,
allowing impotent men to
perform normally for up to six hours, in most
cases.
For the past nine months, men have been testing
the drug in various
phases.
Some patients were so pleased with the
medication's effects, according
to published reports, they've petitioned Pfizer to
let them continue taking
the medication -- a welcome alternative to penile
injections, implants or
vacuum procedures.
-- Maksim (Max) Bilymail to: imax(AT)odyssee.net