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Disability in the News Archive

Impotence May Have Met Match As Viagra Nears FDA Approval

By April Adamson, Daily News Staff Writer
March 24 -- 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 perormance 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 iincreasing 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.

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