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

To: BigKNY3 who wrote (4857)	8/11/1998 8:10:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

BBC - GPs flock to impotence course Tuesday, August 11, 1998 Published at 18:18 GMT 19:18 UK Viagra has led to a surge in inquiries about impotence treatments An impotence course for doctors is having no trouble filling its places as GPs seek help in dealing with a flood of queries in the wake of Viagra. The Erectile Dysfunction in Primary Care course, set up by 14 experts in the field of impotence and reviewed by over 40 medical professionals, aims to teach health workers about the new range of impotence treatments on offer. These include the little blue wonder drug Viagra, manufactured by Pfizer, which is being credited with giving middle-aged men the libido of a 20-year-old. Despite the fact that US drug authorities are investigating up to 40 deaths linked to the drug, it is still being snapped up by Americans. It is expected to be licensed for sale in Europe in the autumn, but GPs in the UK say they are already being inundated with inquiries about the drug, known as Pfizer's Riser. One in 10 Nottingham GP Dr Peter Barrett, a council member of the Institution of Psycho-Sexual Medicine, has reported inquiries from at least 100 men about Viagra at his surgery. Around 10% of British men are thought to suffer from impotence. Already 250 GPs have attended the first sessions of the EDiPC course. The aim is to teach GPs so that they can pass on their knowledge to their peers in preparation for the expected onslaught of inquiries when the new treatments come on stream. Popping a pill Up until now, the main treatments for impotence have tended to involve uncomfortable remedies, such feeding tubes up the penis. But Viagra has heralded a new generation of treatments which are much easier to take and which have encouraged men to come forward about their problems. Pfizer is itself developing a second generation pill and the Schering Plough organisation has recently applied for US approval for its impotence drug Vasomax. British doctors predict that if Viagra were made freely available on the NHS it could cost as much as œ1bn a year. But the Department of Health says the drug will only be available to those whose impotence has been clinically diagnosed. news.bbc.co.uk