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

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (4059)	7/8/1998 8:25:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 9523

Viagra 'works for women too' by Jo Revill The anti-impotence drug Viagra can boost a woman's sex life as successfully as a man's, a senior doctor said today. The pill, which may cost the NHS more than œ1 billion when prescribed to men, appears to have a similarly powerful effect on women who previously had difficulty enjoying sex. "This drug could spread like wildfire through the female population," Dr Derek Machin, a urologist in Liverpool, said today. Viagra, which costs œ6 a tablet, is not yet licensed in Britain, but more than 100 women in this country and another European nation are involved in early trials to look at how it affects them. In America, where women have been able to buy Viagra over the Internet, reports indicate that it has boosted their sex lives. The manufacturer, Pfizer, said it was early days to discuss whether it could be marketed for women, and warned a female version of the diamond-shaped pill could still be 10 years away. However, Dr Machin added:"The word is that Viagra works perfectly well on women as on men. By all accounts it is just as effective for them." He added that a great number of women suffered from an inability to enjoy sex. "We know around one in 10 men are impotent, but we have no idea of the scale of the problem in women because no one talks about it," said Dr Machin. "It does appear to affect many women and can have a very serious effect on their relationships. This drug would seem ideal for use in that kind of situation." In America women have been able to obtain the drug over the Internet by changing their names, for example calling themselves John rather than Joan. Dr Machin said that even though extensive trials of Viagra would have to be carried out before it could be legally licensed for women, the reality would be that thousands could be given the pill by their partners once it was available for men. He was speaking about Viagra at the British Medical Association's annual conference in Cardiff, where he warned yesterday that the drug could take one-fifth of the NHS's entire medicines budget. A Pfizer spokesman said today: "Phase II trials are going on, but it will be many years before any female version of Viagra could come on the market. "There is a great deal of speculation about its effect on women, but it is too early to say what this could be. The situation with females is much more complicated." Viagra works for men by increasing the blood supply to the penis, and there is no physiological reason why the same should not apply to women, helping them reach orgasm. c Associated Newspapers Ltd., 08 July 1998