'Crazy about sex,' Brazilians have illicit fling with Viagra
By KATHERINE ELLISON
Herald Foreign Staff
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Smugglers are sneaking it in from Paraguay. Police are
seizing it by the crate at airports. Newspapers are filled with reports of it being sold
illegally by pharmacies and, in one case, supposedly by a sidewalk vendor.
Enterprising merchants are even offering it for home delivery.
Viagra, the revolutionary anti-impotence drug, is set to go on sale here Monday, but Brazilians -- deservedly famous for their lack of inhibitions -- can't wait. The little blue pills are being sold clandestinely, often pill by pill, with each pill selling for as much as $25, nearly twice the U.S. price.
''This medicine fell on us like a bomb,'' said Marilene Cristina Vargas, an expert
on sexual dysfunction who wrote The Orgasm Manual, a recent Brazilian
bestseller.
''It's crazy, it's excessive -- and it's dangerous,'' she added.
The Viagra hoopla in Brazil has been impressive, even compared with the U.S.
hype. One member of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies was quoted explaining that his
colleagues were absent during a scheduled vote because of the ''Viagra effect.''
IstoE magazine drew readers' attention to its article on the drug last Sunday with a
cover that featured the ''i'' in the word Viagra represented by an unpeeled banana.
Vargas, other doctors and Viagra's manufacturer, Pfizer, fear that with the drug
sold so freely, without medical supervision or even written warnings, some
Brazilians will take it without regard for the considerable risks.
''Everybody wants to experiment with it,'' said Celso Rubio, chief of health
inspections in the southern city of Curitiba. ''Our main worry is that people are
buying counterfeit pills, which could have unknown health effects.''
Viagra is not safe for some men, for instance those with heart ailments or taking
nitroglycerin and other medications.
Possible death
This week, Brazilian newspapers reported what was alleged to be the country's
first known Viagra-related death, of a 66-year-old man with heart trouble in Rio
Grande do Sul state. But Sergio Yankowski, the doctor who reported the death,
said Thursday that he could not confirm it was directly caused by the drug.
Alarmed by the quantity of unauthorized Viagra making its way into Brazil, Pfizer
has moved up Viagra's August introduction by two months. That, Pfizer officials
said at a press conference in Sao Paulo Thursday, will make Brazil the second
country to market the drug, after the United States.
''We've seen this problem in other countries,'' said company spokesman Andy
McCormick, in New York, referring to the contraband supplies. ''But we're
seeing it more in Brazil.''
Rules ignored
Valdair Pinto, Pfizer's medical director in Sao Paulo, said Viagra will be sold only
with a doctor's prescription. But pharmacists say such rules are often ignored in
Brazil, and Vargas, the sexual dysfunction expert, speculated that the health risks
will probably increase.
''Everyone is already taking it now,'' she said. ''Imagine when you can buy it
legally from the pharmacies.''
McCormick demurred when asked to explain Brazil's eagerness for Viagra. But
Vargas explained it in terms of the tropical temperament.
''It's not that we have more impotency here; I think there are more impotent North
Americans,'' she said with a hint of national pride. ''But Brazilians are crazy about
sex. So they'll take it not because they need it but to increase their capacity, to
become sexual athletes.''
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