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Biotech / Medical : VVUS: VIVUS INC. (NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mkilloran who wrote (7309)	4/21/1998 9:00:00 AM
From: Chip Roos	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23519

Impotency pill taking market by storm Tuesday, April 21, 1998 The Associated Press NEW YORK * Pfizer's Viagra captures 79 percent of sales after being available for only two weeks. Duke University Medical School urologist Craig Donatucci has given up answering calls on the new pill for impotence. Patients asking about Pfizer Inc.'s drug, Viagra, now get a recorded message: "Because of the volume of patient calls for Viagra, Dr. Donatucci is unable to take phone calls concerning this new drug." Although the drug started hitting pharmacy shelves earlier this month, many druggists haven't gotten their first shipment, and doctors are still evaluating the latest impotence treatment. But patients aren't waiting to get in line. Viagra captured a whopping 79 percent of the market from rival impotence drugs in its second week of sales, through April 10, according to IMS America, a research information company that reported the figures late Monday. Investors, meanwhile, are snapping up issues of Pfizer stock. The company's shares bolted 8 percent Monday, rising $8.19 to close at $113.37 1/2 on the New York Stock Exchange. The drug had 5 percent of the market during limited availability the previous week, and Pfizer didn't expect it to be widely available until April 15. The drug's popularity more than doubled the total number of impotence prescriptions patients filled in the United States, from a total of 20,106 in the week ended April 3 to 54,474 in the week ended April 10. Atlanta urologist John Stripling wore out his hand writing 500 prescriptions in two weeks. Now he's using a rubber stamp to prescribe the pill. "I've never seen such interest in a prescription drug in all of my years of medicine," said Stripling, who had 300 people waiting for the drug to become available, and is getting 25 calls a day from interested patients. Donatucci said he's written 150 prescriptions, and is scheduling appointments for those who get his message. Doctors and drug industry analysts expect Viagra to eclipse competing impotence nostrums within months. The drug owes its marketability less to what it does than to what it doesn't do: Make strong men wince. Existing impotence drugs must be either injected into the penis or inserted directly into the urinary tract, both unpopular delivery methods. Few of the 30 million men who suffer from erectile dysfunction now do anything about it. The problem gets worse as men age. Two men in five have problems getting an erection at age 40. Nearly seven in 10 do at age 70. Pfizer estimates the number of men coping with impotence worldwide at 140 million. The drug should bring Pfizer $300 million in sales during the rest of the year, said Mariola Hagger, an analyst with Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. Many analysts expect it to bring in more than $1 billion in annual sales after 2000. "It doesn't make you 21 again, but it does solve the problem," said Robert W. Shay, a 70-year-old Los Angeles resident who took part in clinical trials of the drug from 1996 to 1997. Shay, who used to take performance-boosting injections, said Viagra works about as well as the shots but is more discreet and less painful. The drug Pfizer tested on British university students was supposed to work as a treatment for angina, raising blood flow to the heart. But the rush of blood filled another organ instead. Pfizer decided that one man's side-effect was another man's cure, and developed it as an impotence treatment. It remains one of only a handful of impotence drugs. Penile implants have been available for years, the FDA only approved the first drug, Caverject, in 1995. The injectible drug from Pharmacia & Upjohn Co.'s relaxes smooth muscle in the penis, allowing blood to flow in and cause an erection. Unlike the injections, which can leave the user erect for an hour without outside stimulation, Viagra allows the user to react normally to sexual stimulation. In December 1996, the FDA approved Muse, a suppository version of the same drug, a synthetic form of the hormone prostaglandin E that is generically called alprostadil. But Muse still left many users squeamish. To insert the tiny medicated pellet, a slender plunger is pushed 1 1/2 inches into the end of the penis. Viagra could have further applications. Researchers are already looking at whether Viagra could be used to treat women with sexual dysfunction. Some doctors say they're worried that sexually potent men will use the drug as a performance booster - a kind of sexual steroid. A 52-year-old Viagra user in Atlanta, who didn't want his name used, said that's what he'd do if he didn't already need Viagra. "If I was 16 or 17 and I could get ahold of the stuff, I would," he said. "If it's not a miracle, it's as close as you can get." Copyright (c) 1998, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Everyday things look bleaker for VVUS. Chip