Cialis
planning daily pill
June 14, 2006
Once-a-day impotence drug may
be an attractive option for more sexually active
men, doctors say.
Get ready for one-a-day Cialis.
Icos Corp., which together with Eli Lilly markets
Cialis, the No. 2 impotence drug, says it plans
later this year to ask the Food and Drug Administration
for approval of a once-daily version of the
medicine. In May, Icos applied to European drug
regulators for approval of the once-daily pill.
Icos and Lilly plan to market the once-daily
drug to men who take impotence drugs frequently,
said Paul N. Clark, Icos' chief executive. Most
men who use the drugs take them about four to
six times each month. But a daily dose would
be aimed at allowing more spontaneity in the
user's sex life than the strategic planning
required of what Icos calls the "on demand"
version.
The once-daily pill works as
well at improving sexual function as the maximum
dose of Cialis, Icos said. In a study published
in March in the journal European Urology, half
of men taking Cialis once a day said they were
no longer impotent, in contrast to 8 percent
who took a placebo.
Icos did not disclose a price for the once-daily
pill, but analysts predict it will cost about
$3.50 a pill, or $100 a month, compared with
$10 to $12 a dose for the current version.
"For patients who are more sexually active,
which generally means younger patients, whose
sexual activity is more spontaneous, it will
be an attractive alternative, provided the cost
is not prohibitive," said Dr. Ira D. Sharlip,
clinical professor of urology at the University
of California-San Francisco and a spokesman
for the American Urological Association.
Men must take Cialis
and other impotence drugs at least 30 minutes
before they plan to have sex, a factor that
has discouraged use of the drugs, urologists
say.
Some analysts doubt that men will want to take
an impotence drug every day. Insurance companies
may also be reluctant to pay for a once-daily
pill.
Source: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060614/LIFESTYLE03/606140304 |
