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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 (5636)	9/20/1998 9:13:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

09/20 19:16 Viagra demand could swamp doctors -BBC's Panorama LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Demand for the anti-impotence drug Viagra could swamp British doctors with extra work if the government allows Viagra to be provided by the National Health Service (NHS), BBC's Panorama television show said on Monday. Britain's Health Secretary Frank Dobson told doctors last week not to prescribe Pfizer Inc's <PFE.N> wonder drug to patients through the state-funded medical service for the time being, but he held out hope that this would change if the drug's price came down. But in its programme to be broadcast on Monday evening, Panorama said research indicated demand for the "love drug" is so great that if it were available on the NHS, British general practitioners would have to spend at least an extra 90 minutes each week dealing with patients wanting it. This extra burden could even rise to four hours a week if the demand in Britain followed trends in the United States, Panorama said in a news release ahead of the programme's broadcast. This could divert time and money away from priority areas such as the treatment of cancer and heart disease, the programme said. There would be problems even if the government makes Viagra available only from specialist consultants at hospitals and clinics, Panorama said. It said that if just one in ten impotence sufferers wanted to try the drug, this could add 150,000 people to NHS waiting lists for specialists -- a number that would rise to 500,000 if the American trends were repeated. Research for the programme was carried out by the University of St Andrews, Panorama said. A private doctors' service meanwhile warned patients in Britain against buying Viagra on the black market, without a doctor's prescription. While Viagra is for the moment not available through the NHS, some private British doctors have been prescribing it. But S.O.S. Doctors' Direct said it had received over 100 calls for assistance from people who became unwell after taking Viagra or what they thought was Viagra, purchased on the black market. "With the delay in the general availability of Viagra by NHS prescription, we have decided to place a notice to patients in the press warning them not to buy or use non-prescribed Viagra," the doctors' service said.