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HEALTH WATCH: VIAGRA
Negative
Response
They are cheaper and available but Indian versions of Viagra fail to excite
the market
It was supposed to uplift
the sagging Indian male libido and more, but sildenafil citrate, better
known by its brand name Viagra, has failed to lift off in India. Pharma
companies, buoyed by the Viagra mania in the West, predicted ambitious
first-year domestic sales targets for the Indian Viagra market.
 "We
thought the western model would translate into a similar success story
in India but conditions here are different,'' admits Shyamal Ghosh, senior
vice-president, Sun Pharma. When the eight indigenous brands of Viagra
entered the market this January, the companies estimated annual sales
projections in excess of Rs 50 crore. They now say even half that figure
would be optimistic.
Despite the competitive pricing-Rs 12-20 per
tablet compared to around Rs 500 for Viagra-the sales are sluggish. Based
on genuine fears that the drug, if freely sold over the counter, could
be taken as an aphrodisiac and result in the death of people with cardio-vascular
problems, the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) has allowed only
psychiatrists, endocrinologists and urologists to prescribe the drug.
So unlike in the West, general physicians in India cannot prescribe it.
For that matter, nor can sexologist Dr Prakash Kothari, who heads India's
only department of sexual medicine in Mumbai's K.E.M. Hospital. The sexologist,
on whose recommendation a drug company was given the licence to produce
the drug in India, shrugs at the irony. "This is a wonder drug which
can save marriages and benefit thousands. The entire medical fraternity
should be allowed to prescribe it.'' Dr Alka Deshpande, head of the city's
J.J. Hospital's department of medicine, says this directive limits the
drug's reach to towns and cities with the stipulated specialists.
Then there's the problem of awareness. Sildenafil
citrate's case is almost like that of sexual education-awareness is sorely
lacking not only among patients but also among doctors who prescribe it.
While on a 35-town-and- city tour to promote the drug this year, Kothari
recalls having met doctors who prescribed it as a remedy for lack of sexual
desire.
Until pharma companies start campaigns to promote
the drug and the DGCI opens the gates to other doctors, it is the quack
who will rule the market for sexual dysfunction remedies.
-Sandeep
Unnithan
IN SMALL DOSES
 Matrimony,
the Best Medicine: A study of 117 subjects and their spouses published
in the May issue of Psychosomatic Medicine showed that the volunteers'
blood pressure decreased significantly in the company of their spouses,
irrespective of whether the marital relationship was satisfactory or not.
The drop in blood pressure was far greater than the levels associated
with talking with friends or being alone. The explanation is that a partner's
presence could be a conditioned safety signal for humans. High blood pressure
is closely linked to a variety of heart diseases.
 Cocoa
Update: Chocoholics know well that the joy of chocolate melting on
the tongue can often end in heartburn. Chocolate releases a chemical,
serotonin, in the digestive system that causes greater exposure to acid
and the burning sensation that follows. Now scientists in the US say that
the anti-nausea drug, Granisetron, blocks the release of serotonin and
thus brings down acid exposure by more than 30 per cent. Amen, say lovers
of the brown delight.
 Smoking
Impotence: One more in the list of 1,001 reasons not to smoke.
A paper presented to the American Society for Hypertension showed that
men with high blood pressure who smoke are 26 times more likely to have
erectile dysfunction than non-smokers. This backs previous studies linking
impotence and smoking. With overwhelming evidence of its ill effects,
why do people continue to smoke? The comforting sensation of smoke going
down the throat can be as addictive to the mind as nicotine is to the
body, says another study in Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
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