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

To: BigKNY3 who wrote (7157)	3/7/1999 11:09:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

SA's Viagra guinea pig tells all South Africa Sunday Times 07 March 1999 The wonder sex drug Viagra is now street legal in South Africa. LAURICE TAITZ spoke to the first South African, a 77-year-old Johannesburg man who wishes to remain anonymous, to take the drug in clinical trials. This is his story "I had this weakness, this impotence, for about three years. It started when I was 73. Then, about a year and a half ago, I saw the first reports about the drug on TV. That was when it came out in the US. So I contacted Pfizer and it sent me to meet with a doctor. I became a volunteer. I had a full physical check-up because a male of my age can't go into something like this on just hearsay. You've got to have a full physical because it has an effect on you. If you're on certain drugs, you could have a heart attack. But I think a good physician makes sure everything is correct before he prescribes it. You know, like a woman, the male goes through a kind of menopause as well. The older you get, the more impotent you get and the more disillusioned you get with life. Now I feel . . . I can describe it as subconsciously elated. I found out that, as I started taking Viagra, it was like a miracle. It was absolutely fabulous. I was a new person. Pfizer delivered the stuff to the doctor - I don't think there were very many of us on the trials, just a select few. I started taking the pills. I've never known anything like it in my life. In every aspect it was unbelievable. Physically, I was able to have intercourse again and I felt like a young man - even better, in fact. It's been fabulous. I'm a bit embarrassed to talk about it, but even my wife remarked on it. She said: 'Oh God, what's happened to you?' I timed the process and found it takes between 25 and 28 minutes to work. But physically Viagra makes you bigger and better. It's the most wonderful thing. In a married person's life, the wife accepts when the male wants it - however many times a month. So it's an acceptable thing. I just carried on with that understanding between the two of us. Initially, I kept it quiet for the first couple of months, but then I thought, in fairness to her, because she is my age, I must tell her. You know, I've got a lot of sympathy for her, so I discussed it with her. And she accepted it. So she knows, at a certain time every morning, that I want it and she will consent to it. So you take it so many minutes beforehand and that's all. My wife's not a well woman. She won't get out of bed. I had sufficient pills, so I had it on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. So that's three times a week. But now it's starting to diminish - the [stock of the] medication. I think it was up to me to decide how many I wanted during the trials. But there's a snag here. It's a 50mg tablet and you take it just before you have sex and then you have your sex and so on and all the rest of it. But I found out over the year and a half I've been taking it that it wasn't strong enough. The system starts to get used to it. So I had to take a 100mg pill - once I took that it was 100 percent. But now I've got a big problem - I can't get any more stuff. And if I do want it, I've got to pay for it. So that's the disillusionment with this. You become completely reliant on it. Pfizer was very good to me, you know. But now I don't know what I'll do. The trials are over and I can't get more. And I've become dependant on it. I've got to get a prescription and it's going to cost me big money. It's about R110 a tablet, very expensive, so how can I go and do it three times a week? That will cost me more than R1 000 a month and, as I'm of pensionable age, I can't do it." suntimes.co.za