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: Don Dunlap who wrote (8921)	6/2/1998 5:54:00 PM
From: Andre	Respond to of 23519

Could not post the link since I just got this off the wire. Andre ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:25 Viagra effective in half of men with severe impotenc By Mark Egan LOS ANGELES, June 2 (Reuters) - The impotence drug Viagra is effective in half of men with the most severe impotence problems, allowing them to lead a healthy sex life, researchers said on Tuesday. "Roughly 48 percent of men with the most severe (impotence) who never get an erection, not even partial, nothing, and can't have intercourse almost always can normalize their sexual function (by using Viagra) which is very encouraging for a pill," Dr. William Steers said in a telephone interview. Steers, of the University of Virginia, presented his finding at the American Urological Association's annual meeting in San Diego. The study compiled results from 10 other studies in the United States and Europe for a total of 3,361 patients, making it the largest study ever on the drug. Patients took the drug for eight weeks and assessed the usefulness of the pill with a self-administered test. The analysis revealed that 48 percent of men who never, or almost never, get an erection were almost always able to get aroused by using Viagra while 70 percent of men with milder problems had success when using the pill. Impotence is the persistent inability to achieve or maintain an erection sufficient for sexual performance and affects more than 30 million men in the United States. "The good news today is that it looks like that for men with the most severe erectile dysfunction this pill, if taken properly, is safe and can work in up to 48 percent of them," Steers said. Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra was previously thought to be only useful among men with mild to moderate impotence problems. Since its launch in April the drug has become one of the most popular ever in the United States with more than 1.5 million prescriptions written. "It is encouraging that in can work in men who we previously thought it couldn't work on," Steers said. Steers said a number of new drugs and approaches are being examined for new treatments to impotence which offer hope for combination therapies that may help those with severe problems which cannot be fixed by Viagra alone. "I think we will see over the years possible combinations and better drugs with less side effects," Steers said. "Things will change quite rapidly given the tremendous economic impact of this drug and the recognition of what a large problem this is in society." Steers warned that doctors' and patients' enthusiasm for Viagra, the first oral pill for impotence, should be tempered to ensure safety. He noted that some doctors have been prescribing an unapproved combination of Viagra with other impotence drugs that may have drastic side effects. He noted that there have been reports of men with erections that can last for hours -- a medical emergency that sometimes leaves the penile tissue destroyed and incapable of further erections. Women have also been taking the drug despite any safety trials for its use on women, he said. Other patients on heart medications have been seeking out the drug despite the interaction warning for Viagra and heart drugs. "I have taken the prescriptions out of two patients' hands as they were walking out of the office because I have had my nurse check with their primary care physician and found that they were on nitroglycerin," he said. "The patients had lied to me just to get the drug." "There has been irresponsible physicians doing things that are not approved and irresponsible patients and people have to be very reasonable. This is a controlled prescription drug, it is not a party drug," he said.