Pfizer's Viagra May Have Been Used by Pilot in Crash, NTSB Says
Bloomberg News
November 24, 1998, 5:39 p.m. ET
Pfizer's Viagra May Have Been Used by Pilot in Crash, NTSB Says
Washington, Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc.'s impotence
treatment Viagra may have been used by a pilot who died in the
crash of an experimental airplane in Maryland, according to the
National Transportation Safety Board.
Matt Furman, a spokesman for the agency, said investigators
found a prescription bottle of Viagra with the deceased pilot's
name on the label in the wreckage.
When NTSB investigators sent the pilot's blood to the Civil
Air Medical Institute in Oklahoma for toxicological tests -- a
routine step in aviation accident investigations -- they also
asked for a test for the impotence drug. Furman emphasized that
the test was requested because of the discovery of the bottle.
This morning, the Baltimore Sun reported that federal
investigators were looking into the possibility that the pilot, a
56-year-old actor named William Gardner Knight, took the drug and
suffered side effects impairing his vision.
Kathryn Creedy, a Federal Aviation Administration
spokeswoman, said the Sun report erroneously suggested that
investigators suspected a link between Viagra use and the crash.
''We have made no such link; we are unaware of any such link
in any accidents or any incident, including this one,'' Creedy
said, adding that the agency has asked the Sun to correct its
story.
Pfizer spokesman Andy McCormick said the company didn't have
any independent information about the pilot's possible use of
Viagra. ''We're cautioning against any undue speculation,'' he
said.
Warning to Pilots
Last month, the FAA recommended that airplane pilots not
take Viagra within six hours of flight duty because it can impair
their ability to distinguish between blue and green in cockpit
instrument displays.
Shares of New York-based Pfizer fell 2 to 114 1/8.
Separately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said today
that Viagra will carry new warnings and information to ensure its
safe use.
Viagra became a household word after Pfizer won approval for
the drug in late March. It had the most successful drug
introduction in the U.S., with second-quarter sales of $411
million as wholesalers stocked up on the drug.
Since then, however, sales have dropped. The drug had third-
quarter sales of $141 million, below the $150 million to $200
million some analysts had expected.
--Kristin Jensen and Jennifer Thomas in the Washington newsroom |
