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Biotech / Medical : Pharma News Only (pfe,mrk,wla, sgp, ahp, bmy, lly)

PFE 26.50

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3:45 PM EST

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To: Anthony Wong who wrote (319)	6/15/1998 6:33:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (3) of 1722

German minister against Viagra on prescription Monday June 15, 4:44 pm Eastern Time BONN, June 15 (Reuters) - German Health Minister Horst Seehofer said on Monday he was against the anti-impotence drug Viagra being available on prescription in Germany. ''It would cost the health system a double-digit amount of billions of marks,'' he told journalists in Bonn. Only in cases where a patient was known to be suffering from a specific illness could doctors prescribe it, he added. Otherwise men complaining of potency problems would have to pay for it themselves. Seehofer, answering questions after a news conference on another subject, said he expected authorities to approve distribution of the drug formally in Germany by September. Separately, the news magazine Focus said Germany's main grouping of doctors and health funds was also against prescriptions for the drug. It quoted the Federal Committee of Doctors and Health Funds as estimating that if 7.5 million German men with potency problems took two of the Viagra pills a week under prescription, it would add up to 15 billion marks in extra costs for the health system annually. German doctors and health funds determine in the first instance whether a drug can be registered as fit to be prescribed. If they make no decision, the German parliament can be called in to make a ruling. In the United States, some 1.7 million prescriptions have been written for the drug, sold by U.S. concern Pfizer Inc (PFE - news), since it was approved in late March. Citing unnamed legal experts, Focus said that banning Viagra by prescription could be risky for Seehofer because it could bring a flood of court appeals by users demanding reimbursement, some of which could be successful.

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