Viagra is hot topic as urologists convene here | New drug
inspires record turn out for conference
Cheryl Clark
STAFF WRITER
San Diego Union-Tribune
02-Jun-1998 Tuesday
The urologist from France gazed at Pfizer Inc.'s enormous Viagra display, a
double-sized exhibit on impotence towering over the American Urological
Association conference this week at the San Diego Convention Center.
"In France, we don't yet have this drug, because it is not yet authorized
by the minister of health," said Dr. Franck Salome. "But, oh, do the
patients want it. And it is sold, because there is a large black market.
For $500 you can buy 13 pills."
"Do you have any samples?" he jokingly asked.
From Chile, urologist Conrado Stein stopped by the booth to pick up a free
Viagra pen and ask some questions. "People read a lot and travel a lot, so
they know about this drug," he said. "Then they ask me, 'Is it real? Is it
true?' And I have to tell them I don't know."
And from Germany, urologist Hans-Udo Eickenberg said the Viagra frenzy has
not yet started there, "but it will soon enough."
They were among the 17,000 urologists, exhibitors and guests attending the
annual conference -- a record with between 25 to 50 percent more
pre-registered than last year. At the annual conference, international
experts on such conditions as urinary-tract disease and prostate cancer
convene to exchange the latest medical findings.
This year, it is the good news about Viagra that inspired many to come,
said association spokesman William Glitz. "That, and San Diego," he
quipped.
So far, more than 1 1/2 million men have purchased the drug with
prescriptions, nearly all in the United States, since the drug was approved
for sale here March 27. Viagra pills sell for $10 each in the United
States. The tiny European countries of San Moreno and Andorra are the only
other places where it has been legally available.
That will soon change. Pfizer representatives said they received approval
three days ago to sell the drug in Morocco and Brazil, and anticipate
approval to begin sales in Mexico and Colombia in the next few weeks, and
throughout Europe by September.
By all reports, they say, the drug not only works, but it is safe as well.
"It seems to us that what we have is a social phenomenon," said Andrew
McCormick, a Pfizer representative.
But there are still concerns about safety. A European study of how the drug
works in women has not been completed, even though many women reportedly
are taking the drug in hope of improving their enjoyment of sex. And
research is pending on people who take the drug over a long period of time.
Yesterday, Pfizer medical experts fielded questions about new reports that
between six and seven men died of coronary complications following sexual
intercourse after taking Viagra.
McCormick said that three or four of them were related to use of nitrates
or nitric oxide, a potentially lethal combination about which researchers
and Pfizer have issued several warnings. The two drugs should never be
taken together, they said.
McCormick said that Pfizer is trying to get additional details about the
deaths, but added that sexual activity is physical exertion that men taking
Viagra may not be used to.
"There's clearly a risk of men who wouldn't dare go down the block to get a
newspaper taking Viagra and having sex for the first time in a while," said
Dr. Thomas Brady, chairman of the American Urology Association's public
media committee.
He told a gathering of medical reporters attending a press briefing that
physicians should consider telling their patients who receive Viagra
prescriptions that they should go easy, that "you're not 18 anymore, and
some men may elect to have a heart evaluation before taking the drug."
"You have millions of men on this medication," he said. "And some of them
are going to have heart attacks. Did the medicine cause it, or was it
exercise during intercourse?"
By all accounts, he said, Viagra "is the golden pill -- the first-line
therapy for everybody with this problem." |
