Word: sildenafil
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Mesher's story suggests, and many doctors insist, more isn't necessarily more with Viagra. Known to chemists by the less evocative name of sildenafil (the word Viagra, redolent of both "vigor" and "Niagara," had been kicking around Pfizer for years, a brand name in search of a product), the drug began life as a heart medication designed to treat angina by increasing blood flow to the heart. Sildenafil, it turned out, wasn't so good at opening coronary arteries, but happy test subjects did notice increased blood flow to their penises, a side effect brought to Pfizer's attention...
Many questions still have to be answered before sildenafil can be made widely available. Doctors believe the drug works by blocking an enzyme that allows blood to flow out of the penis. It is this trapped fluid in erectile tissue that makes the organ firm. Yet unlike other treatments, the pill doesn't work without sexual arousal, suggesting sildenafil augments rather than bypasses the normal erection process...
...largest study, of 351 men, almost 40% of those who took the placebo reported enhanced sexual function. Their improvement was not due to any biological action and thus must have been triggered by the men's belief that the pill they were taking would do some good. But for sildenafil to win an appreciable market, it must work on men whose impotence is due solely to organic problems. Investigators are preparing to conduct a trial of 2,500 men, including those whose dysfunction has a clear physical cause, such as diabetes or high blood pressure...
Doctors are concerned that an anti-impotence pill could be subject to widespread abuse. Reports indicate that some Hollywood bedroom athletes have already tapped an underground market for an injectable erection drug. The danger is that otherwise healthy men will take sildenafil to bolster their sexual performance and then become psychologically addicted, unable to achieve an erection without...
...researchers have detected very few side effects from sildenafil. In a twist on an old joke, however, a handful of men complained that the medicine gave them headaches. Pfizer researchers are betting that won't prove a strong impediment, and they expect sildenafil to come before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review by the end of next year...