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

To: HiSpeed who wrote (4741)	8/5/1998 3:48:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 9523

Russian experts ponder: Do our men need Viagra? By Adam Tanner MOSCOW, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Russian men will be among the first outside the United States able to buy the impotence drug Viagra legally starting in October -- but it's unclear how many will actually want it, officials said on Tuesday. With 58 the average age of death for Russian males, much of Viagra's prime potential market is eliminated. But experts say middle-aged Russian men suffer from the same sexual problems as those elsewhere -- although they may be more reluctant to acknowledge them. "The level of sexual disorders is very high in Russia," Tatyana Agarkova, a doctor and member of the Culture and Health Sexology Association, said in an interview. "Russia is not different from other countries in needing help." Smoking, alcoholism, stress, poor eating habits and other banes of Russian contemporary life can contribute to impotence -- but these lifestyle factors have also sharply lowered Russian men's life expectancy. At a news conference to present the drug, sensitivity over any threat to the perceived virility of Russian men sometimes overcame scientific analysis. "The percentage of impotent men in Russia is far lower than in America," said an agitated Nikolai Lopatkin, 74, director of the Russian Institute for Urology, who wore a Soviet-era "Hero of Socialist Labour" gold star on his lapel. "Don't think that half of our men are impotent, it's far from the case." Robert Marshall, head of the Russia office for U.S. drugs firm Pfizer PFE.N which makes Viagra, said a company study concluded that about four million Russian men above the age of 35 -- 14 percent of the total -- suffered from impotency and were potential customers. But he said it was unclear whether they would seek medical help and whether they could afford the average cost of $12 for a single tablet which Pfizer plans on charging in Russia. "The potential for Viagra is very hard to estimate," he said. Many Russian pensioners, who under the Soviet Union rarely discussed sexual problems in public, saw their savings wiped out in the hyper-inflation of the early 1990s after the collapse of Communism. So far there are no plans to subsidise Viagra costs for the needy, said Galina Koslesnikova, head of the Health Ministry's drug registration division. Viagra is already available on the Russian black market at prices ranging from about $14 to $250 a pill, medical experts say. Sometimes blackmarket dealers even proffer fakes such as a strong laxative. "As soon as it appeared in the United States it came to the Russian black market," said Agarkova, who hailed the drug's legal arrival. "Selling it through such illegal channels outside the control of doctors is extraordinarily dangerous." As in the United States, Switzerland, Canada and Brazil where it is already sold, Russia will offer Viagra only by prescription after its official introduction in October. Experts said some Russians, including the new rich wanting to see if they can enhance sexual performance, will continue to seek Viagra through non-official channels. "Our main concern is that patients will be taking Viagra either who don't need it or without any information about it," said Pfizer's Marshall. He added that in the United States about two million men in the United States had taken Viagra since its April introduction, with Pfizer selling 25 million tablets there. REUTERS Rtr 13:25 08-04-98 Copyright 1998, Reuters News Service dljdirect.com