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

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (698)	8/26/1998 11:47:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 1722

Pfizer Gets Australian Approval to Sell Impotence Drug Viagra Bloomberg News August 26, 1998, 9:17 p.m. ET Pfizer Gets Australian Approval to Sell Impotence Drug Viagra Canberra, Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. has been given approval to sell its Viagra impotency drug in Australia, the local drug authority said. ''I think it will be used more widely than even something like the introduction of penicillin,'' said Federal Health Minister Michael Wooldridge. More than 1 million Viagra prescriptions were written in the U.S. within a weeks of its launch in May. The drug is also sold in Switzerland and Thailand and is set to get marketing approval in the 15-nation European Union, subject to an agreement about warning labels. Viagra will be available in Australian drugstores in a matter of weeks, Wooldrige said, provided Pfizer change the packaging to include a health warning. Clinical studies have showed patients using Viagra reported impaired vision and headaches in greater frequency than could be expected by people not using the drug. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also estimates that the drug was taken by 69 patients in the U.S. who later died. Many of those men were also taking drugs for heart disease. Pfizer shares rose 1 1/2 to 108 1/2 in the U.S. yesterday. The shares have doubled in the past year on optimism about Viagra sales. The announcement by Australian government was made before the U.S. market opened. --Vivienne Stanton in Canberra (612) 6273-1415, with reporting quote.bloomberg.com