Impotence Pill Sparks Legion Of Sexual-Performance Products
April 30, 1998 12:12 AM
By Andrea Petersen, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street
Journal
As the nation grows giddy over Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra, a
legion of wannabe "sexual performance" products are
jockeying for a place on the impotence pill's coattails.
Herbal companies with products such as NuMan and
Stamina, subliminal audiotape companies and alternative
pharmacies are among those trying to use the Viagra
craze to boost their own businesses. While critics have
branded many of the Viagra hangers-on frivolous,
useless or even dangerous, some legitimate medical
products could benefit from Viagra's growing popularity
as well.
"Viagra has opened a lot of doors for me," says an
ebullient Peipei Wu Wishnow, who bumped up the
launch of Interceuticals Inc. and its herbal sexual
performance potion, NuMan, to coincide with Viagra's
release. "We wanted to get a ride out of the Viagra hot
trend," she says.
Artie Schiff's subliminal audiotape business,
HypnoVision Inc. in Halesite, N.Y., is also taking
advantage of the Viagra hype. For years, HypnoVision
has sold a tape, primarily through the Web, with
subliminal messages that are purported to help put men
in the mood for sex. But when news of Viagra hit, it
added some new messages: "My body works perfectly
during sex because my Viagra is working" and "God
Bless the Pfizer drug." Mr. Schiff says he has received
more than 200 orders for the new Viagra-enhanced
tape.
Getting too close to Viagra can have disadvantages.
Pfizer has sued two concerns hawking products named
Viagro and Vaegra, charging copyright violations. Last
week, Pfizer was granted a seizure and temporary
restraining order against David A. Brady and his
American Urological Clinic in Doraville, Ga., which was
peddling the Vaegra pill over the Internet. The drug
company was granted a similar order against the
hawkers of Viagro. The defendants couldn't be reached
for comment.
But others aren't deterred. Bodyonics Ltd., a Hicksville,
N.Y.-based nutritional-supplement company, is sending
a letter to 10,000 doctors around the country to alert
them to its new Longevity line of herbs targeted at baby
boomers.
The company is also making special note of Viagra's
minor side effects, such as indigestion and vision
blurring, which Pfizer uncovered in clinical trials. "We
offer a natural alternative without side effects that has
been used traditionally for many years," says Andrew
Fischman, a Bodyonics marketing director. The
company is touting ErogenUs as a "unisex performance
support" pill.
The hoopla around Viagra is also prompting Natural
Balance Inc. to move up the launch of a new version of
its popular Cobra pills in mass market outlets such as
Wal-Mart. Cobra pills, as well as some other herbal
sexual-enhancement products, have traditionally
contained yohimbe, a substance extracted from the bark
of an African tree.
The ingredient has been shown to raise blood pressure
and cause irregular heart beats, and the American
Botanical Council, which promotes herbal supplements,
now recommends that people avoid it. But Natural
Balance defends Cobra. "Clearly when you look at the
side effects of Viagra, yohimbe is very safe," says
spokeswoman Stacey Paterson. "But because of the
concern we are coming up with the yohimbe-free
product."
Anthony Harnett, owner of Harnetts, an alternative
pharmacy in Cambridge, Mass., is ordering a big
shipment of NuMan to meet the demand he expects
from customers who don't want to take pharmaceuticals.
"My customers wouldn't take a commercial
over-the-counter drug," Mr. Harnett says. "But they're
all interested in sexual health."
James Zhou is spending these Viagra-heady days
promoting his HerbaSway Laboratories LLC's Stamina
supplement on his weekly radio talk show, "Secret of
Health and Longevity," in New York City. "We are
telling people that from 5,000 years of experience using
herbs in China, we can enhance your sexual energy,"
says Mr. Zhou, HerbaSway's vice president of research
and development.
But HerbaSway and other herbal companies have to do
a tricky dance. Federal regulations bar them from
making explicit claims that their products treat a medical
condition such as impotence. The law allows companies
to make only "structure/function" claims -- basically
claims that a product affects a certain system in the
body. "We're not allowed to say Viagra," says
HerbaSway's Mr. Zhou. "We have to say enhancing
your sexual energy."
Since it was introduced less than three weeks ago,
Viagra has become one of the most-prescribed new
drugs ever. As of last Friday, doctors were writing
46,000 prescriptions a day, nearly double the week
before. Meanwhile, Pfizer's stock has risen $30 since
early April.
Meanwhile, a host of other pharmaceutical companies
are hoping to cash in, too. Zonagen Inc. in Woodlands,
Texas, is collaborating with Schering-Plough Corp. to
produce Vasomax, a new oral formulation of an
injectable blood-pressure medication that, according to
early clinical trials, helps patients get erections about
40% of the time. Zonagen says it plans to apply to the
Food and Drug Administration for marketing approval
within in a month or so. The company also expects to
release details of larger studies at a scientific meeting
next month.
TAP Holdings Inc., a joint venture between Abbott
Laboratories and Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd. of
Japan is developing a drug that may be as effective as
Viagra. The drug, apomorphine, acts on the brain to
stimulate the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is
involved in sexual response. Other forms of the drug
have been used in high doses to induce vomiting, but
TAP officials say that the much lower doses used for
impotence won't produce this effect.
Finally, ICOS Corp., a biotech company in Bothell,
Wash., has a drug that acts in the same chemical
pathway as Viagra, although its clinical trials on humans
are at a very early stage.
-Robert Langrethcontributed to this article.end.
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