Viagra has gotten some bad publicity lately.
First there was the news that some states had been unwittingly reimbursing sex offenders for Viagra.
Then came the news that in rare cases Viagra could cause blindness. This could mean that in the 21st Century aged mothers would warn their sons: “If you do Viagra you’ll go blind.”
And now there’s this news: the market for erectile dysfunction drugs is sagging. Reports Business Week:
While the news that federal health officials are looking into rare reports of blindness among some men using Viagra and other impotence drugs certainly isn’t good, the more immediate issue facing the makers of erectile dysfunction treatments is a stagnant market.
A sales plunge tied to Friday’s revelations isn’t expected because the incidence of blindness is so rare. The Food and Drug Administration said it has received a total of 42 reports of blindness, 38 among users of Pfizer Inc.’s Viagra, 4 among Cialis users and one for Levitra. In contrast, over 23 million men have taken Viagra while 5 million have used Cialis.
Cialis is marketed by Eli Lilly & Co. and ICOS Corp. Levitra is sold by GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Schering-Plough Corp. in the United States, while Bayer AG markets it elsewhere.
So why are the kinds of drugs made famous by Bob Dole not doing well? It isn’t as if there wasn’t advertising…such as Bob Dole:
While advertising “has successfully established awareness of the problem of erectile dysfunction,” many patients are too embarrassed to bring up the issue with their doctor, said Dr. Natan Bar-Chama, associate professor of urology at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. In addition, “some of the people we thought were interested in having sex just aren’t.”
Doctors said that some of these men either do not have partners, or have partners who are no longer interested in sex.Moskowitz said he doesn’t think the advertising will stop, even as the combination of embarrassment and apathy create a marketing dilemma for drug companies. But he said his industry contacts say doctors are receiving fewer free samples. He estimates that 50 percent of impotency pills distributed last year were free samples and that companies have cut that back to about 35 percent.
The magazine doesn’t say what’s needed to straighten out the sales.
And the dangers of Viagra? Some medical experts are defending Viagra from claims that it might in some cases cause blindness. Reports CTV:
“With the millions of users around the world, 43 men having blindness — it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention to it, but it certainly doesn’t establish cause and effect,” said Dr. Jerald Bain, a University of Toronto professor and endocrinologist at Mount Sinai hospital.
Further research would have to be done into the affected mens’ medical histories, he said.
“Were they diabetic? Were they prone to blindness for some other reason? … Did they suddenly become blind an hour after taking a pill,” Bain told CTV.ca.
According to a BBC report, the vision problems occurred within 36 hours of taking Viagra.
Dr. Howard Pomeranz, the Minneapolis ophthalmologist who noticed the connection, told ABC News it was the timing that made him suspicious.
Pfizer responded with this: “There is no evidence showing that (vision loss) occurred more frequently in men taking Viagra than men of similar age and health who did not take Viagra.”
Dr. Peter Pommerville, a B.C. urologist and vice chair of the Canadian Male Sexual Health Council, told CTV.ca that the type of blindness — NAION, or non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy; a swelling of the optic nerve — is caused in part by blood vessel constriction related to hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. All of the men had those risk factors.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.