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Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BigKNY3 who wrote (2396)	5/12/1998 6:54:00 AM
From: James Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

Refills data from this am NY Times looking good! New prescriptions for Viagra totaled 269,842 for the week that ended on May 1, the latest statistics that are available, up 29.8 percent from a week earlier. Renewals, crucial to any drug's financial success, totaled a huge 16,429, according to IMS, more than double the previous week. "The refills are really strong," said David Saks, managing director at Gruntal & Co. "That could really make Viagra one of the most popular drugs of all time. The demand for it is just phenomenal." Jim

To: BigKNY3 who wrote (2396)	5/12/1998 11:02:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

BigKNY3, the whole NY Times article which Jim Lamb mentioned (Hemant Shah (sp), the independent pharma. analyst, tracks this data as well, no article/newswire so far): NEW YORK -- Americans are still rushing to get Viagra, Pfizer's new impotence pill, but the market has already begun to change, according to IMS Health, a health care information company. New prescriptions for Viagra totaled 269,842 for the week that ended on May 1, the latest statistics that are available, up 29.8 percent from a week earlier. Renewals, crucial to any drug's financial success, totaled a huge 16,429, according to IMS, more than double the previous week. "The refills are really strong," said David Saks, managing director at Gruntal & Co. "That could really make Viagra one of the most popular drugs of all time. The demand for it is just phenomenal." Yet the market already shows signs of change. When Viagra was released a month ago, urologists were writing 47.5 percent of the new prescriptions and primary-care physicians 34 percent, according to IMS. The new figures show the trend reversing, with primary-care physicians writing 49 percent and urologists 33 percent. Urologists have long worried that Viagra might tempt some patients who would otherwise see a specialist to phone their primary-care physicians instead. The men getting Viagra are receiving fewer pills than previously. According to IMS, the average prescription dropped from 15 pills a month ago to 8.5 in the week that ended May 1. "I don't think there is any major underlying cause with this," Saks said. "A lot of people and their doctors are just figuring out what the right amount of pills is for them."

To: BigKNY3 who wrote (2396)	5/12/1998 11:30:00 AM
From: BigKNY3	Respond to of 9523

The lead original article in the May14th issue of The New England Journal of Medicine is "Oral Sildenafil in the Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction" by Irwin Goldstein, MD, Tom Lue, MD, Harin Padma-Nathan, MD, Raymond Rosen, PH.D, William Steers, MD and Pierre Wicker, MD. The article is accompanied by a lengthly editorial "A Pill for Impotence" by Robert Utiger, MD. Here are the highlights: BigKNY3 Article Highlights: Study: 24 week dose-response study of 532 men with erectile dysfunction of organic, psychogenic and mixed causes. Results: 69% of all attempts at sexual intercourse were successful for men receiving sildenafil as compared to 22% for placebo. The mean # of successful attempts per month were 5.9 for men receiving sildenafil and 1.5 for those receiving placebo. Headache, flushing and dyspepsia were the most common adverse effects occurring in 6% to 18% of men. 92% of the men completed the 32 week extension study. Conclusion: "Oral sildenafil is an effective, well-tolerated treatment for men with erectile dysfunction". Discussion: "We found that sildenafil improves sexual function in men with erectile dysfunction". "Overall, the results of the efficacy assessments demonstrated that sildenafil significantly improved erectile function and quadrupled the success of intercourse with effectiveness maintained for at least six months." "Sildenafil treatment was well tolerated. ...Only one man with a visual disturbance discontinued treatment. Few men discontinued sildenafil, suggesting a relatively high level of drug tolerability and acceptance. No man had priapism after sildenafil treatment." "The American Urological Association Panel on the Treatment of Organic Erectile Dysfunction stated that the ultimate goal is a therapy that is reliable, has minimal side effects, and is simple to use. Sildenafil appears to meet these specifications. Oral therapy permits discreet administation and is less invasive than some other treatment options, including injections into the corpus cavernosum, transurethral drug delievery and prosthesis implantation." NEJM Editorial Highlights "The results of this study are promising, and the drug and been widely hailed in the media since its approval by the FDA on March 27. Anecdotes of nearly miraculous restoration of sexual function have fueled the excitement. Whether the promise of sildenafil will be realized after many more men have been treated and the drug has been taken repeatedly for prolonged periods remains to be seen."