Improved Viagra in the works. Can someone with a little science under their belt explain to me how a systemic drug can be altered to act faster, with fewer side effects? and ICOS?
Frostman
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June 15, 1998
Pfizer/Viagra -2: Aimed At Heading Off Competitors
Dow Jones Newswires
LONDON -- Pfizer Inc. (PFE) said Monday it's developing a new, improved version of blockbuster oral impotence drug, Viagra - a move it hopes will keep it one step ahead of potential competitors.
Research now underway at the company's Sandwich, U.K. laboratories is aimed at creating "Viagra with a plus," according to Gill Samuels, director of science policy for Pfizer Ltd., the U.K. unit of Pfizer Inc.
"Obviously we are aiming to stay on top," Samuels told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview. "There is some very promising stuff going on."
Apart from working on a female version of Viagra, Samuels said, Pfizer also wants to reduce the drug's side effects and make it faster acting. Viagra has been known to cause headaches and can be dangerous if used by people on heart medication. It also takes about an hour for the drug to take effect.
Since being launched in April, Viagra has become one of the biggest selling drugs in the world and captured more than 90% of the U.S. market for impotence. But its success has attracted the attention of competitors, several of which are said to be developing their own versions of the drug.
The biggest immediate threat to Viagra's dominance, according to some, is Icos Corp.'s IC351, a product in Phase II trials that is said to have similar efficacy to Viagra but lack many of its side effects.
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