Hard Line Drives: Viagra and Baseball
Is there something slightly unseemly about the juxtaposition of a story about Viagra’s off-label use by baseball players underneath a “OUR GREAT YANKEE DVD DEAL A BIG HIT!” panel? Is this a perfect example of the separation of “church and state” for advertising/promotions and editorial, or just a wacky coincidence? I’m betting on the latter.
Viagra for Women
The pharmaceutical industry has long been searching for the female equivalent of Viagra. Researchers decided that what was needed was a reasonably safe and effective drug that acts on the central nervous system, on the pleasure centers of the brain; or the sensory circuitry that serves them.
I’ve always been a bit skeptical about all the hype over Viagra. I mean to say, isn’t it a common complaint of women that their significant others usually think with their flagpoles, anyway? Why on earth, then, would they require a booster shot?
Move over Men - Viagra for Women
The University of Virginia in Charlottesville is currently testing LibiGel, an ointment designed to boost women’s libido the same way Viagra does for men: Aiding sufferers of hypoactive sexual desire disorder that affects 1/3 of American women.
UVa, along with 99 other institutions, are testing the drug in hopes that it will eventually be available to women complaining of a low sex drive. 25 women ages 30 to 65 are taking part in the national study.
BioSante, an Illinois based drug company, says that this problem is experienced by many woman and has been “largely been ignored by the pharmeceutical companies”. In its clinical trials at 17 institutions, Women’s sexual satisfaction increased 283%
Common drugs can cause travelers pain
The bottle of Viagra that Rush Limbaugh carried into this country last week landed the radio star in legal limbo and late night comedians’ punch lines. It also points out how any drugs — even the most common — can become prescriptions for trouble when traveling.
One-third of the 2,500 Americans arrested overseas each year are held on drug-related charges, according to the U.S. State Department. Not following the letter of the law also can be a problem coming home.
Limbaugh was detained and his drugs seized as he came through Palm Beach International Airport on June 26 for having a prescription in his doctor’s name. The State’s Attorney Office in Palm Beach is still investigating.
Woman Viagra
German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim didn’t set out to create a Viagra-like drug for women. The company was simply trying to develop a fast-acting antidepressant, one that patients would respond to in a matter of days, not weeks as in most current treatments. By the late 1990s the company had developed a molecule called flibanserin that seemed to relieve stress in rats. But like many promising drugs, it flopped in human trials.
Says Dr. Lutz Hilbrich, the company’s executive director of general medicine: “We did not see the effect we were expecting.”