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Biotech / Medical : Pharma News Only (pfe,mrk,wla, sgp, ahp, bmy, lly) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: S. HYDER who wrote (136)	5/31/1998 10:53:00 PM
From: Marshall Teitelbaum	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

FWIW, there was also mention on the CBS evening news earlier that a report should be coming out later this week demonstrating the safety of viagra.....by one of the urologists being interviewed in San Diego at the urology conference. Marshall

To: S. HYDER who wrote (136)	6/1/1998 12:07:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

EU's Drug Committee Recommends Pfizer's Viagra Be Sold In Europe June 01, 1998 12:09 AM By Andrea Petersen, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal Viagra is going trans-Atlantic. The European Union's drug evaluation body recommended Friday that Pfizer Inc.'s impotence drug be made available in the 15-country region. The Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products, which is a part of the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products, adopted a "positive opinion" on Viagra. The final decision on whether Pfizer will be able to market Viagra in European Union countries is up to the European Commission, which will consult with all member states. But approval is all but assured since the European Commission almost always follows the recommendations of the committee. But while Pfizer would be able to market Viagra as soon as that decision is made, which could happen in about three months, it could take months more for each country to decide how much Viagra will be reimbursed by its national health service. Currently, Viagra is only available from Pfizer in the U.S., the company said. Viagra has also been approved in Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa and Colombia. "We would think that by this time next year we should have approvals pretty much world-wide," says Pfizer spokesman Andrew McCormick. The company plans to begin shipping pills to Brazil and Morocco next week. Black-market sales of Viagra have also been reported in some countries where, it would appear, drugs bought in the U.S. are fetching high prices. Viagra sells at retail in the U.S. at about $8 to $12 a pill, but there are reports that some black marketers are getting 10 times that amount overseas. In the wake of the six deaths Pfizer reported to the Food and Drug Administration last week among patients taking the drug, several countries are reportedly considering a ban on Viagra until safety concerns are clarified. Pfizer said such crackdowns on Viagra are misguided. "There's a tremendous amount of speculation and misinformation about Viagra floating around the world," Mr. McCormick said. "As we discuss the merits of Viagra, we will gain approval." In a separate development, Pfizer said it is likely to begin studies of the interaction between Viagra and protease inhibitors used to treat HIV infection. Many doctors who treat AIDS patients are concerned that since protease inhibitors and Viagra are processed by the same enzyme system, the levels of either drug might rise high enough to cause toxicity. "My fear is that Viagra levels will be increased," says Howard Grossman, an AIDS specialist in New York. "But we don't know the interaction with protease inhibitors so patients need to be aware that we're operating in the dark here." Pfizer said it still does not know when a study with Viagra and protease inhibitors would begin or how many subjects would be involved. Copyright (c) 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.