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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 (5318)	8/31/1998 3:46:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 9523

Viagra's Greatest Hits, Volume II: A Mix of Anecdotes Bloomberg News August 31, 1998, 2:16 p.m. ET Viagra's Greatest Hits, Volume II: A Mix of Anecdotes New York, Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- In the months since Viagra hit the marketplace, the male impotence drug has generated huge sales for manufacturer Pfizer Inc. -- and bizarre tales of sexual cravings. From the French chef who hoped a dose would spice up his beef piccata to ''Viagra mules'' in Ireland, the little blue pill has sparked a furor around the globe and launched a cottage industry in strange Viagra tales. Below is a far-from-definitive look at some of the more unusual stories dealing with Viagra. Second Helpings, Please A chef in the French Alps figured offered a $33 three-course ''Viagra Menu,'' featuring ''beef piccata in Viagra sauce with fig vinegar and fine herbs,'' among other delicacies, according to a story carried by the Associated Press. The publicity stunt failed to amuse authorities in France, where the drug was still banned. Inspectors from the French Bureau of Consumerism and the Repression of Fraud confiscated the chef's supply of the pills, which he'd purchased in Switzerland, and police cited him for importing and using a banned drug. You Can't Believe Everything You Read In Hanover, Germany, men who took Viagra pills they bought via the Internet found to their dismay that their passions cooled rather than intensified, Deutsche-Presse Agentur reported. It turned out the little blue pills were nothing more than peppermint, for which they had paid 99 marks (or $55) for a package of four. Police followed the path of the advertisement to an apartment where they seized a supply of the peppermint pills and blue coloring. The entrepreneurs face prosecution. What a Way to Go In Sydney, a man described by Deutsche Presse-Agentur as a ''colorful underworld figure'' became the first Australian known to die after taking Viagra. Noel Madden, 53, died of a heart attack while with an 18-year-old prostitute in his Sydney apartment, the news agency said. A bottle of Viagra, not yet available by prescription in Australia, was by his bedside. Greasing More Than Palms Viagra has appeared as a political weapon in Tainan in southern Taiwan, the Central News Agency reported. It is a custom for candidates to give gifts to community bigwigs to curry their favor. Red wine has long been the most popular present -- until now. Viagra has supplanted liquor. One candidate was quoted in the Central News Agency as saying ''response from recipients has been fervent and uplifting.'' Lights! Camera! Viagra! Politicians and religious leaders blasted the British Broadcasting Co. for videotaping 53-year-old actress Tuppy Owens making love with her boyfriend Antony 30 minutes after they had taken Viagra. Ms. Owens' previous credits included such films as ''Sensations'' and ''Lady Victoria's Training,'' and she is the author of ''Take Me, I'm Yours, The Sex Maniac's Diary.'' Mary Whitehouse, a longtime opponent of risque broadcasts, said the program makers had gone ''out of their minds.'' A BBC spokeswoman was quoted in the Scotsman as saying that Viagra represents a ''legitimate subject.'' The last word belonged to Owens: ''Viagra isn't that great -- that's what we've proved.'' Mules for Love and Money This isn't the kind of job you'd get at most temp agencies. Hoping to improve business, brothel owners in Dublin and Belfast offered young people all-expenses-paid weekend trips to the U.S. to smuggle cases of Viagra pills into Ireland, according to the People, a British tabloid newspaper. Nigeria's Abacha Is Still Dead When Nigeria's military dictator Sani Abacha died on June 8 at the age of 54, the official cause was said to be a heart attack. In the aftermath, the nation has been rife with Viagra-related rumors, according to London's Sunday Times. One school of thought is that he took the sex-enhancing drug and then ''indulged in such a protracted and energetic coupling that his heart gave out,'' the paper reported. In another tale, Abacha was given poison-laced Viagra by one of his cronies as a way to remove him from office. Some Parsley Environmentalists warned of a potential ecological disaster after Beirut newspapers dubbed a local herb the ''Lebanese Viagra,'' sending amateur harvesters flooding to the mountains, the Associated Press reported. The plant, known as Shirsh Zallouh, or the ''hairy root,'' is a member of the parsley family that grows high in the Lebanese mountains. While scientists warned it could be harvested to extinction by love-sick crowds, health officials cautioned people not to confuse it with a similar root that is highly toxic and was used as the source of the poison that killed Socrates. Is That a Threat or a Promise? The 15-nation European Union may have unwittingly aroused interest in Viagra when its committee on medicines approved the drug on Aug. 24. The EU said Pfizer must note that prolonged, painful erections may occur after use of Viagra and issue this warning: ''If you have such an erection which lasts continuously for more than four hours, you should contact a doctor immediately.'' --Jon Friedman (212) 318-2337 in the New York bureau/br