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

To: Mick Mørmøny who wrote (2930)	5/26/1998 11:23:00 PM
From: Mick Mørmøny	Respond to of 9523

Spanish social security to pay for Viagra pills Tuesday May 26, 6:19 pm Eastern Time MADRID, May 26 (Reuters) - Spain's social security system will cover the cost of some presciptions of the impotence pill Viagra once European medical authorities grant approval for the drug, Spanish officials said on Tuesday. But Health Minister Jose Manuel Robay said the national health system would not pay for casual use of Viagra but only for cases in which doctors find ''a condition that needs to be cured.'' He said Viagra, which has been hailed by some as a miracle cure for impotence since going on sale in the United States last month, would be allowed on the Spanish market only after it was deemed safe. Viagra, developed by Pfizer Inc (PFE - news), is available in only a handful of places in Europe. ''It's going to be studied with every precaution in order to prevent abuse of the drug,'' Robay told reporters. But Eduard Rius, health director for Catalonia region, said Robay should have waited until after European drug trials were completed before announcing that purchases would be covered by social security. Rius told the Spanish news agency Europa Press that tough decisions would have to be made on how the country's troubled health system could absorb the new costs. Medical authorities estimate that up to 1.4 million Spanish men suffer from some form of impotence. More than a million prescriptions have been written for Viagra, mostly to middle-aged men, since it was launched in the U.S. amid a blaze of media publicity.