Entries from August 2007 ↓

US states have been told they do not have to pay to provide the impotence drug Viagra to convicted sex offenders.

The move comes after an audit found 198 convicts in New York state had been reimbursed by Medicaid for the drug between January and March 2000.

Their crimes included offences against children as young as two.

The Medicaid programme, whose cost is shared by states and the federal government, provides health care for the poor.

The federal Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services said they should not pay for erectile dysfunction drugs for sex offenders.

Spokesman Gary Karr said "states already have the power to determine if a drug is not medically appropriate for a certain patient or certain class of patients", the Associated Press news agency reported.

Public risk

The New York audit, conducted by Comptroller Alan Hevesi, did not cover other states, but Mr Hevesi said states are required by law to include Viagra in Medicaid programmes covering prescription drugs when medically necessary.

He said the policy raised "serious policy considerations and has the potential to place the public at risk" and asked the government to take administrative action or amend the Medicaid law.

On Monday, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist said that Medicaid had paid $93,000 to provide Viagra to 218 sex offenders in that state over the last four years, AP reported.

New York Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton have both indicated they back a change in policy.

Sen Schumer said: "It is just mind-boggling to think that Level 3 sexual offenders can get Viagra, which may indeed help them perpetrate other horrible crimes.

"Giving convicted sex offenders government-funded Viagra is like giving convicted murderers an assault rifle when they get out of jail," Schumer said.

Originaly from Source

Kamagra Oral Jelly is a brand name for Ajanta's Sildenafil Citrate Oral Jelly.Kamagra Oral is used for Erectile Dysfunction treatment.Kamagra Oral Jelly is in the jelly form, meant to be consumed orally and should be allowed to dissolve in the oral cavity before it is swallowed.More easily swallowed than tablets and therefore Kamagra Oral Jelly is suitable for elderly people and also people who have difficulty in swallowing. Kamagra oral Jelly is available here as Kamagra Oral Jelly 100mg.

Before talking about the Cialis's case history it's necessary to remember the famous Pfizer's medication Viagra. After on the 27th of March 1998 The U. S. Food and Drug Administration approved Viagra, this prescription was a success, and just for the first year of marketing Pfizer sold medicines, total cost of which overreached one billion dollars. Unfortunately for Pfizer the situation was altered significantly after the FDA authorized Levitra on the 19th of August, 2003 and Cialis on the 21st of November, 2003 too. In 1993 the pharmaceutical company Icos started to examine a PDE5 enzyme inhibitor called IC351 as it was essentially the process through which the erectile dysfunction medicines affected. In 1994 during clinical researches of some cardiac medication Pfizer's researches descried the sildenafil citrate, a white crystal powder, which was a part of the medicine, caused the probationers, taking part in the researches, to have erections as it blocked the enzyme that was responsible for the production of the chemical substation causing erection, normalizing thus erectile function of the penis for some time.

Despite the fact that the investigators were not attempting the chemical mix IC351 for erectile dysfunction therapy, the mixture appeared to have an accompanying effect that could possibly cost millions or even billions of dollars. In 1994 at the nearest opportunity Icos got the exclusive right to IC351, and during 1995 the medical researches of the first phase were taking place. In 1997 the second phase of the medical studies was started and for the first time Icos tested its medicine on patients with erectile dysfunction. The second phase continued for about two years and when it was over the third phase was commenced.

In 1998 ICOS Corporation and Eli Lilly & Company decided exploiting the preparation for erectile dysfunction for financial profit and in two years they registered a new medicine application with the U.S. FDA for IC351; they made a decision to name the medicine Cialis this time though. In May of 2002, Icos and Eli Lilly & Company informed the American Urological Association that the researches carried out in the third phase showed that Cialis's effect lasted for about 36 hours. In a year U.S. FDA approved Cialis. In comparison with Viagra Cialis has one essential advantage. The matter is that the half life of Tadalafil (Cialis), is 17.5 hours so this medicine works up to 36 hours, even if there is still about a quarter of the absorbed dose in the body by that time. As to Sildenafil (Viagra), its half life is just 4 hours.
In 2006 Eli Lilly bought ICOS Corporation for $2.1 billion dollars.

Earlier this week I got an e-mail to tell me that someone called Levitra had commented on one of my entries on the VoxPolitics weblog.

Since it's a group weblog for "e-democracy titbits and crumbs", we get quite a few comments from random readers, and often they are useful and informative, so I read it with interest.

Sadly, it was not about the latest e-voting disasters in California - a topic of great interest to me - but a rather obvious piece of spam.

It said; "Interesting comments and a Superb Web Site" and then, like so many spam e-mails, had a link to a site that wanted to sell me a Viagra alternative.

Over the next few days I got 20 more, most offering Viagra substitutes but one featuring a cable TV scam - presumably for the times when I would have used up all my Viagra supplies.

Every one of them was posted as a comment on the blog, and they could only be removed individually through the administrative pages of the site, which takes ages.

It felt like the digital equivalent of flyposting - coming home one day to find your windows covered with posters for dodgy clubs and bands you have never head of.

Although the term flyblog has been used already to mean either blogging about flying, or blogging while flying, I would like to claim it for the practice of posting spam comments to people's blogs like this: I have just been comprehensively flyblogged.

Clever program

A quick online search revealed that the problem has been around for a while, but until recently it was largely done by individuals who would visit blogs and post their adverts, along with a link to whatever dodgy website they were promoting.

It had not happened to any of the sites I am involved with, so I had not noticed it or heard about it.

Now, however, it seems to have been automated: some clever programmer working for one of these iniquitous outfits has written a tool that goes around a list of weblogs and collects information on the various posts made to it.

It then creates the right HTML to fool the blogging software into thinking that a comment has been entered, and the resulting advert is posted to the blog as if it was legitimate.

That would explain why my colleague and fellow VoxPolitics poster James Crabtree is now getting 20 to 30 of these spam comments a day, reaching the point where he no longer has the time to remove them.

What is worse, there is no obvious way to block these posts without putting serious obstacles in the way of those who have legitimate comments to make.

Asking people to register before they post comments, or making them validate their comments by sending an e-mail and waiting for a reply, just get in the way. Building blacklists of sites that flyblog will be as ineffective as attempts to blackmail e-mail spam.

Blogs evolved out of a desire to remove barriers to online conversation, and restricting their ability to add comments would seriously reduce the sort of lively debate that makes them so interesting.

Perhaps the worst thing about flyblogging is that it is not covered by any of the spam laws that I am aware of, and probably is not illegal under data protection or hacking laws.

After all, a public blog with an accessible comments page is hardly a closed system, and even if you have an acceptable use policy saying what sort of postings you welcome, that is not legally binding either.

It is hard at first to see why the spammers are doing this. I am unlikely to be reading the comments on the latest mobile voting trials when I suddenly come across an advert for vicodin and feel so interested that I click on it.

Search rankings

One theory is that the real target is Google. A spammer's site with lots of references in well-indexed blogs will have a higher Google PageRank, so that anyone foolish enough to actually go searching for the product will find the spammer's site.

It is an interesting, but as yet unproven, hypothesis.

Whatever the reason, it is moving from a minor to major irritant. None of the other blogs I contribute to or run has been affected yet, but I can only assume it is a matter of time before the spammers move in, as they did first with UseNet and then with e-mail.

It depresses me to think that any open medium can be so easily undermined by people with no scruples, no sense of responsibility and no idea of the damage they are doing.

It also feels a lot more personal and intrusive than e-mail or UseNet spam.

A blog is a place to express your views in a public arena, and having some unknown people fill the space with advertising is the online equivalent of finding that someone has pinned a card advertising "private massage" to your coat when you were not looking.

I feel quite upset by this, and angrier with the spammers and their lack of respect for the principles of online co-operation than I have been for years. 

The rise and rise of Viagra has created a 1.5bn worldwide market in anti-impotence pills.

Now rivals are fighting for a share of the spoils and it is becoming a recreational drug of choice for some in the party generation.

Last week, Pfizer's chief executive Henry McKinnell warned that Chinese made counterfeits posed a threat to its business and urged the country's authorities to clamp down on the copycats.

New research

Pfizer, the world's biggest pharmaceutical company, stumbled on the drug by accident at their research labs in Sandwich, Kent.

In the late 1980s, they had been developing a new treatment for angina, but noticed a strange side-effect in trials - increased erections among volunteers.

The effect on their sex lives was so marked that once the angina trails were over the volunteers wanted to keep on taking the medication.

Pfizer decided to commission some new research.

In 1989 they approached Clive Gingell, one of Britain's top Urological Surgeons, based in Bristol.

He had spent his whole career trying to treat and improve the lives of thousands of men suffering from impotence.

In those days, commonly used treatments included the fitting of implants directly into the penis, a vacuum pump and self injection.

Most sufferers were thoroughly put off and consigned themselves to a life without sex.

Viagra arrives

Mr Gingell ran a new series of trials, and the results impressed him.

Pfizer chief executive McKinnell says copycats pose a threat

He describes Viagra as "a wonder drug".

"The thought of having a pill that would cure impotence was amazing to me," he says.

"I never thought I would see it in my lifetime."

"There has been a kind of Holy Grail idea associated with curing impotence," Pfizer's Mariann Caprino tells the Money Programme.

"And here it was in a little blue pill."

Colossal market

When Viagra was launched in 1998, Pfizer's share price doubled. It was apparent that there was a huge previously untapped market out there.

Doctors claim that half of all men over 40 become impotent at some point in their lives.

That is more than 150 million worldwide, with two million sufferers in Britain alone, so the potential market for drugs like Viagra is colossal.

Overnight Viagra made Pfizer famous. "We discovered the mass production of penicillin, yet it was Viagra that put Pfizer on the map," says Ms Caprino.

Embarrassing subject

Nevertheless, despite the highly successful launch, the company faced a huge potential problem in selling Viagra.

Men were simply not willing to talk about impotence, they were ashamed.

If they were not prepared to discuss their impotence, how could they be persuaded to ask their doctor for a prescription?

Ray Reynolds, who suffered from impotence for 30 years, had simply given up hope of ever being able to have sex again.

"I thought well, I'll just put it to one side and remain a eunuch for the rest of my life," he says.

Celebrity endorsement

To overcome the problem, Pfizer came up with a series of marketing ploys.

Pfizer sponsors NASCAR, America's top spectator sport

Firstly, they asked the Vatican, and other world religious leaders, for their blessing. This headed off possible moral and religious objections.

Secondly, they employed big name celebrities to encourage men to seek treatment for impotence.

Pele, the legendary footballer, headed a men's health campaign about erection problems, and 75 year old former US Presidential candidate Bob Dole went public for Pfizer about his own impotence problem.

American men rushed to their doctors.

Leon Steinberg, an 84-year-old impotence sufferer living in a retirement community in Florida, was impressed by Mr Dole's courage in coming forward.

"When I saw it on TV, I admired him for it," he says.

"You might say he was my idol."

Withdrawal of campaign

Pfizer decided not to use the term "impotence" in the advertisements, instead replacing it with a more bland technical term "erectile dysfunction".

Pfizer's Mike Suesserman says the new term "allowed us to make the condition a household name".

Pfizer reasoned that few men may admit to impotence, which employs a complete loss of ability, but a lot more may own up to erectile dysfunction, which suggests a much broader range of symptoms.

But Pfizer's aggressive marketing campaign has recently run into trouble.

A recent television advertisement has been criticized in the United States for suggesting that Viagra might be better and more effective for patients than the clinical experience suggests.

The Food and Drug Administration ordered its withdrawal.

Efficient sex

There are potential problems, too, in the increasing use of Viagra as a recreational drug.

Half of all men over 40 become impotent at some point

"For a lot of gay people it is just a normal way of life," says Gary Mercado, who runs the Elysium Resort, the largest gay hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

When Viagra is taken with amphetamines, "you forget about having protective sex, so there are huge capabilities of transmitting all sorts of sexual diseases", he says.

Pfizer says that a very small percentage of people abuse Viagra, but accepts there is great potential in developing the market for sexual pharmaceuticals.

Meika Loe, author of the book The Rise of Viagra, agrees: "In the Viagra era, sexuality is subject to the cult of efficiency. It's become almost McDonald's-ised. Serve it up fast and hot."

The Money Programme: Viagra: The Hard Sell was broadcast at 2200 GMT on Wednesday, 9 February on BBC Two .

Originaly from Source

Kamagra Jelly is not for newborns, children, or women. Do not let anyone else take your Kamagra Jelly. Kamagra Jelly must be used only under a healthcare provider's supervision. Before you start any treatment with Kamagra Jelly, be sure to ask your healthcare provider if your heart is healthy enough. If you're a man who uses nitrate drugs, like nitroglycerine, never take Kamagra Jelly. The combination of Kamagra Jelly and nitrates can make your blood pressure suddenly drop to unsafe levels. You could get dizzy, faint, or even have a heart attack or stroke. Nitrates are found in many prescription medications that are used to treat angina (chest pain due to heart disease) such as: Nitroglycerin (sprays, ointments, skin patches or pastes, and tablets that are swallowed or dissolved in the mouth) Isosorbide mononitrate and isosorbide dinitrate (tablets that are swallowed, chewed, or dissolved in the mouth) Nitrates are also found in recreational drugs such as amyl nitrate or nitrite ("poppers"). If you are not sure if any of your medications contain nitrates, or if you do not understand what nitrates are, ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist.

The root of a South African tree traditionally used to boost male potency could form the basis of a new drug.

Scientists believe they have found the active ingredient of the violet tree, and have applied for patents.

For centuries, the root of the tree has been chewed by South Africans suffering from erectile dysfunction.

Some of the profits from any drug could find their way back to the traditional healers who "prescribe" it.

The violet tree is found not only in northern South Africa, but also in other African countries.

Dr Marion Meyer, head of the botany department at the University of Pretoria, told a South African news agency that chemicals extracted from the root had been tested in the laboratory.

When it was added to samples of "smooth muscle" - the type of tissue found in the penis, the muscle relaxed to allow more blood to flow into it.

This suggests there is a possibility it could offer an alternative to exisiting drugs Viagra and Levitra, which also work by increasing blood flow into the penis.

Blockbuster drugs

Dr Meyer said that traditional healers would benefit should a drug based on the violet tree ever be registered.

"They are pleased to be getting recognition for something they have been using for centuries."

Viagra has proved to be one of the most successful drugs in recent pharmaceutical history, earning millions for maker Pfizer.

However, the violet tree will not be competing with it for a while, as it will be at least three years before human trials of the extract can start, and another two years before a drug could be launched.

Originaly from Source

A cafe on the island of Sao Tome off Africa's west coast relies on its famed aphrodisiac cocktail to pull in punters during the festive season.

A large glass bottle containing a mysterious brown liquid labelled "Pilolo Atomico" - which means Atomic Penis - occupies a prime position on the bar.

"It's so popular, even the president talks about it," says Maria-Joao Pombo, the owner of Cafe and Companhia (Cafe and Company).

"Pilolo Atomico is made up of a mixture of a local brandy and several tree barks," she says.

"We also flavour it with things like cinnamon because it is very bitter. Here in Sao Tome, they say it's an aphrodisiac."

Herbal remedy

Ms Pombo, who moved to the island five years ago, has been selling the cocktail for about a year and a half.

She decided to go commercial after hearing about the local erotic concoction.

"I knew people here eat the bark of plants like Pao tree; washing it down with what they call a 'hot (alcoholic) drink'.

"So I decided to combine the ingredients and bottle it," she says.

Traditionally, however, the drink was not only used to enhance sexual potency.

People ate the tree bark to cure stomach pains and hernias. It also gave them the strength to walk for miles without food or drink.

Sceptics

And Pilolo Atomico is not its original name either, this was cooked up by some of Ms Pombo's friends while sitting at the bar.

"I knew the name sounded very suggestive but I didn't know exactly what "pilolo" meant," she explains.

"Once the drink started becoming more popular, I decided to register the name and the product.

"But they wouldn't let me. That is when I found out that "pilolo" means penis."

Sceptics say the cocktail's popularity is just down to its name, but some cafe regulars swear by it.

"When I drink just one glass of pilolo, I feel strong for 12 hours. Believe me, it really does work," says Miguel.

"You just have to make sure you have a beautiful woman with you," he adds.

Women also seemed to appreciate its aphrodisiacal effects.

"It's fantastic, much better than the blue pill," says Alexia, referring to the impotency drug Viagra.

Others say the cocktail is an acquired taste.

"It tastes foul," says Bibi.

But effective or not, safe sex is the message - every Pilolo Atomico comes with a free condom.

Originaly from Source

It takes 60 minutes before KAMAGRA starts to work and stays to work for up to 4 hours.KAMAGRA Oral Jelly is a potential oral therapy for the treatment of Erectile Dysfunction. Also useful in Antidepressant induced Sexual Dysfunction.

ike all medications, Kamagra Oral Jelly can cause some side effects. Headache, flushing, dyspepsia, dizziness, nasal congestion and blurring of vision

Notes : Sildenafil at recommended doses has no effect in the absence of sexual stimulation. Sildenafil is not an aphrodisiac and does not increase sexual desire or fertility.