GOOD MORNING ALL!!! Beautiful day here...hope it is for you too!
One more time for good measure!
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Vivus Says Only 1 Patient Died After Using Impotence Treatment
Mountain View, California, July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Vivus Inc. said it knows of only one death among the 600,000 patients who have used its Muse impotence treatment, following reports that 39 men have died after taking Pfizer Inc.'s blockbuster drug Viagra.
Mountain View, California-based Vivus made the comment a day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its Web site with safety information on Viagra, disclosing the 39 deaths and saying it hasn't changed its view that the Pfizer drug is safe.
''Muse does not appear to pose additional risk to the man with cardiovascular disease,'' said Vivus Vice President Neil Gesundheit. ''This data is meant to be put into contradistinction to what's on the FDA Web site for Viagra.''
Sales of Muse, a pellet that's injected into the urethra, have tumbled since easier-to-take Viagra was introduced in April, quickly dominating the market for impotence treatments. Vivus blamed a second-quarter loss of $17.7 million on competition from Pfizer's drug and earlier this month said it will eliminate its sales force because it can no longer afford to market Muse on its own.
Of the 39 Viagra users who died, 24 suffered some kind of heart problem, 13 died from unknown or unconfirmed causes and two had strokes, the FDA said. At least six of them took Viagra along with a heart medication known to have a dangerous interaction with Viagra that Pfizer and the FDA have warned doctors about.
Since April, some 3 million Viagra prescriptions have been filled for about 2 million men, according to Pfizer.
Vivus rose 1/2 to 7 9/16. Pfizer rose 2 1/4 to 116 3/8.
20:04:17 07/22/1998
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