Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: bigg e who wrote (8114)	5/17/1998 1:56:00 AM
From: AlienTech	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23519

U.S. sex pill a hit on Saudi black market - paper By Youssef Kassem DUBAI, May 16 (Reuters) - The new American wonder drug, Viagra, which is giving a boost to the sex lives of impotent men, is selling on Saudi Arabia's black market for as much as $80 a pill -- eight times its value in the United States, a Jeddah based newspaper said on Saturday. The Pfizer Inc (PFE - news) drug, which last month generated a record 570,000 prescriptions in the United States, has not yet been licensed in Saudi Arabia. Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper said the pills were being hand-carried from Egypt, Britain and Taiwan. ''According to pharmacy sources quantities of Viagra are brought in by travellers from Cairo and sold at 200 to 300 riyals ($53-$80) a pill,'' it said. ''Some Viagra pills on the Saudi black market are red and yellow. They are counterfeits because the original Viagra is a blue pill,'' the newspaper said. The impotence pill, a world first, has not yet been licensed in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Pharmacists in the UAE said the delay in registering Viagra could lead to wide-scale smuggling in the emirate. ''Smuggling drugs to the UAE is not new... It is a flourishing business from Arab countries and Europe where some medicines are either cheaper or sold over the counter,'' a Dubai-based pharmacist who declined to be named told Reuters. ''The business in smuggled diet and abortion pills to the UAE is big, Viagra will soon be added to the list,'' he said. But officials warned physicians against smuggling the drug into the country. ''Our concern is some physicians who would get involved in smuggling the drug,'' Mariam Galadary, Director of Pharmacy and Drug Control told Reuters. ''We have nothing against Viagra, but it has to undergo a process of tests and approvals, it has to meet our conditions,'' Galadary said adding that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval could speed up the registration process. ''The manufacturers of Viagra have not applied for registration in the UAE. When and if they do, the process could take up to six months.'' A study by the Scott-Levin drug audit service said on Thursday that patients in the United States obtained 570,000 new prescriptions for Viagra in April -- the most prescriptions ever for a drug in the United States during its first month on the market. ----------------------------------------------------------------------