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

To: BigKNY3 who wrote (5664)	9/23/1998 9:40:00 AM
From: BigKNY3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9523

Fortress Viagra - the inside story Aisling Irwin is among the first reporters to tour the Irish factory where the most talked-about drug in the world is made AIDLING IRWIN 09/23/98 The Daily Telegraph London Page 09 THE interior of the world's only Viagra factory - a fiercely guarded secret - was shared briefly with a handful of journalists when the drug company Pfizer opened the doors of its fortress-like plant in Ireland. The factory in the village of Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, has been shrouded in myth and superstition since it began production of the formula which has revolutionised the sex lives of American men and is about to do the same on this side of the Atlantic. A select band of journalists were allowed to test reports that there was a deeply satisfying aroma in the air, a vitality among employees and a friskiness among the village dogs. Viagra will be available within a week or two in Ireland. But outside the factory, the prospect of the end of impotence induces an air of depression among the Ringaskiddy men. Villagers are experts on the wonder drug, having been asked for their opinion by curious visitors over several months. They issue dire warnings from behind their pints of Murphy's in the three bars of this one-street community. "You're going to get fellas popping off all over the place," said Micheal, 42, a taxi driver. "It's fellas over 65 this Pfizer Riser is meant for and they've got one foot in the grave already. "Jesus, aren't they trying to cut the world's population, not bloody increase it." At the newsagent's down the street the elderly shopkeeper agrees: "You need a tablet to rejuvenate all of yourself, not just one part." And they all agree with the bus driver: "It's just treated as a laugh here. It's not taken seriously. You're going to make a mockery of the system. "But if you're going in," whispers the driver later, "see if you can get me some. For when I'm older." The blue diamond pills of Viagra , or sildenafil citrate, have been manufactured in almost total secrecy. Inside the huge complex on the shores of Cork harbour is a mass of pipes and vessels centred around three brooding, windowless factories. Their roofs are surmounted by suggestively inflated windsocks. Security is tight: no mobile phones, no cameras, no wandering over to where the active ingredient is produced. Staff security had to undergo "minor modifications" when Viagra began production, admits Charlie Hipwell, head of environmental health and safety. "It's been a new situation for us," he said. Nevertheless, the impression is that it would be rather easy to swipe a small brown jar of the magic powder from a shelf in the quality control laboratory nearby, and make a local bus driver happy. Paddy Caffrey, managing director of Pfizer Ringaskiddy, said his staff knew better than to take a powder which was so highly concentrated that it was dangerous. 'Our employees have been handling medicine for many years and they are aware of the hazards," he added. To make a batch of the coveted chemical takes 21 days and three stages, each of which involves mixing, heating in glass-lined reactors, drying, purifying and testing for quality. The procedure is highly automated, and only five staff patrol the vessels on the factory floor, watched by four supervisors based in a windowless control room packed with video screens and computers. Each week 1,400kg (3,080lb) of pure Viagra is ready in an array of bright blue barrels, the contents of each 25kg (54lb) container capable of fuelling 5,000 nights of passion, according to Stephenie Kealy, the production manager. The powder is shipped to one of three centres - France, Puerto Rico or America - where it is diluted, shaped into a diamond and coloured. When the Irish begin taking the drug, the tablets will have begun life in Ringaskiddy but arrived via the French village of Amboise. Back in Ringaskiddy, they are grateful for the employment Pfizer has brought, though Viagra is only a small part and the entire plant only requires the services of 318 people. Pfizer produces 17 other pharmaceuticals here and says it has pumped pounds 75 million into the Irish economy this year alone ( Viagra prescriptions may cost Ireland pounds 20 million). But there is a downside. The village's brightly painted houses and blooming window boxes now lie marooned in a surging industrial estate that stretches for miles. Pfizer is only one of many industries here. Lorries thunder down the village street, loaded with artificial hips and knees made by Johnson and Johnson and arrays of pharmaceuticals, steel and other materials. Ringaskiddy has become one of the powerhouses of Ireland's economic boom but the locals sometimes miss their unspoilt views of the bay and quiet chats in the street. There is a sense of gloom and the tales of escaped Viagra are wide of the mark. The overwhelming odour yesterday was of fried eggs, while the dogs of Ringaskiddy were the sleepiest mongrels that ever guarded a one- eyed Irish village