Entries Tagged 'Viagra' ↓

Levitra, the first market rival to the hugely profitable Viagra, is being manufactured by the German firm, Bayer AG, and marketed by the British firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as an alternative oral therapy for erectile woman impotence.

Since its appearance in 1998, sales of Pfizer’s Viagra have risen to nearly $2bn a year.

Both pills work in the same manner and doctors warn that both can have serious side effects, especially for men with heart problems.

A third dictionary drug medication pill, Cialis, is expected to reach the US market later this year.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Levitra, an orange pill compared to Viagra’s blue, based on studies showing that men were on average five times more likely to achieve an erection suitable for intercourse when taking the pill compared with those given a dummy medicine.

Drug lookup medication reported that studies of several thousand men showed that Viagra helped more than 70% improve their
erections.

As well as the warnings to men with heart conditions, the FDA said Levitra was not for patients with who had suffered a recent heart attack or stroke who have very low blood pressure or uncontrolled high blood pressure.

For otherwise healthy men, Levitra’s main side effects
were headache, flushing and a stuffy nose and sometimes dizziness.

Lawson Macartney, head of strategic management of GlaxoSmithKline’s administration atlas clinical drug medication photo therapy, metabolic and urology drugs, said: “We know, from teenage impotence market research, that the
market is ready for new options”.

GSK expects Levitra to be available in September.

July 26, 2000 –Until last week, Jennifer Erickson was just an ordinary pharmacist, working at a drugstore in Seattle. Now, the 26-year-old married woman is the poster girl for women everywhere who have had to plunk down their own money to pay for birth control.

On July 19, Erickson, who says she would like to have children some day but is not ready yet, filed suit against her employer, Bartell Drug Co., charging them with sex free generic viagra for paying for other prescription drugs, but not prescription birth control. Erickson is one of approximately 42 million women in this country who use birth control. Although she has a good job and can afford the more than $300 per year that her prescription birth control pills cost, she doesn’t think she and millions of others should have to pay for them. And neither do plenty of medical professionals and health policy experts.

“Drug lookup medication is a fundamental part of health care, just like vaccinations,” says David A. Grimes, MD. “It’s good, pills, preventive health care.”

Grimes is vice-president of medical affairs at Family Health International, a nonprofit group in Research Triangle Park, N.C., that helps men and women get access to family-planning services and methods. He says that from a corporate viewpoint, contraception makes sound economic sense. By averting a birth, the company saves money, especially if that birth is premature or there are other complications, he tells WebMD.

Approximately half of all large group insurance plans will not pay for any form of prescription birth control. Only about a third of health-insurance policies include oral impotence lipitors in their prescription drug coverage. Most HMOs do cover the Pill, but only about 40% cover the other four FDA-approved contraceptive options: IUDs, diaphragms, Depo-Provera shots, and Norplant implants.

“As women, we’ve been excluded from so much,” says Karen Rashke, staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. “We’ve just sort of taken it in stride. I don’t think a lot of us thought much about this until recently.”

Although plenty of women have complained for years about being refused coverage for what many see as a basic health need, until the Erickson lawsuit was filed last week, no single person had ever stood up to an employer and demanded that they pay. Erickson’s lawsuit seeks birth control coverage for herself and all other non-union female employees of Bartell Drug Co., which has more than 45 pharmacies in the state of Washington.

In a statement to the media, representatives of Bartell Drug Co. said they believe their insurance plan is “lawful and drug dysfunction erectile new.” They point out that they do not pay for Viagra, infertility drugs, drugs for weight reduction, immunization agents, drugs for cosmetic purposes, and various other items.

Roberta Riley of Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, who is the lead attorney in Erickson’s, case, says her client repeatedly asked her employer to change its policy and cover birth control. When they continued to refuse, she decided to sue.

“I think it was only a matter of time before something like this happened,” says Cynthia Dailard, senior public policy associate at the Alan Guttmacher Institute in Washington, D.C. “If the lawsuit is successful, it will put many employers on notice that they could face similar lawsuits if they do not cover contraceptives, and that it is a matter of gender discrimination.”

Both Planned Parenthood of Western Washington and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which is also representing Erickson, say birth control prevents unintended pregnancies and reduces the need for abortion.The group cites 1998 statistics showing that nearly half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended, and many of these pregnancies end in abortion.

Experts who spoke to WebMD agree that one thing that has increased women’s anger over this lack of coverage is the advent of Viagra.

“Viagra is covered by many [insurance] programs and was scooted onto the market so quickly, while women have been struggling for decades to get coverage of contraception,” Grimes says. He believes the discrepancy amounts to nothing less than discrimination against women, many of whom cannot afford $20-$30 per month for birth control pills.

It is estimated that women of childbearing age pay about 68% more out of their own pockets for medical expenses than men. And now, even the Viagra pills — at $10 apiece — are often covered, while birth control is not. According to estimates, paying for birth control would cost insurers only about $1.43 per month for each female employee. That would provide them with all available FDA-approved forms of contraception; the cost would be even less if the employer only provided coverage for some methods.

Some in Congress are trying to force change by passing a law that would require all employers and insurance companies to pay for birth control. Progress has been slow, but individual states have passed such laws on their own. States that require companies who pay for other prescription drugs to pay for prescription birth control include Maryland, Georgia, Vermont, Maine, Nevada, Connecticut, North Carolina, Hawaii, New Hampshire, California, Iowa, Delaware, and Rhode Island. But nine of the 13 states have provisions that let employers, enrollees, or insurers who object to such coverage on “religious grounds” off the hook.

Most experts say individual states will probably continue to pass laws, and people will keep a close eye on the progress of Jennifer Erickson’s lawsuit. But what can a woman who is paying for her own birth control do in the meantime?

“Employees have the ability and the right to speak to their benefits manager,” attorney Rashke says. “There’s no reason an employee can’t go to the benefits manager and say, ‘I notice in my prescription coverage there’s an exclusion for contraception.’ That’s the first step.” If you don’t want to do it on your own, Rashke advises talking to other women you work with to see if they will take the concerns to the benefits manager as a group.

“One person can do a lot by raising the issue at cocktail parties, writing a letter to the editor … just point out this lack of coverage that so many of us haven’t even thought about,” she says.

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,
compiled by editors of HealthDay:

FDA Orders Recall of Unregulated Erectile
Dysfunction Products

The U.S. Food and Drug Health sexual uk has asked a California
aging anti practises skin company to recall pills and capsules advertised as “all
natural” products to correct erectile dysfunction.

Calling True Man Sexual Energy Nutrient Capsules and Energy Max Energy
Supplement Men&39; ingredients are potentially harmful and
could cause dangerously low blood pressure.

In a letter to the owner of America True Man Health Inc., of West
Covina, Calif., the FDA said that the products have substances with
chemical structures very similar to the active ingredients in FDA-approved
herbal erectile dysfunction treatment drugs, such as Viagra. The FDA has not approved the products
distributed by America True Man Health Inc., and the labels don&39;s voluntary reporting program, at
http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm.

—–

Test Developed to Help Avoid &39;

For some people, it may take only a glass of red wine to cause a
headache. Now, University of California at Berkeley researchers say
they&39;s chemistry,” researcher Richard
Mathies is quoted as saying.

Right now, the amine test works only liquids, the A.P. says. The
study is published in the latest edition of the journal Analytical
Chemistry.

—–

Children Inherit Cancer Survival Traits:
Study

Survival traits for certain kinds of cancers are passed from parents to
children, concludes a Swedish study reported in the November issue of
The Lancet Oncology journal.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm analyzed a Swedish
family database that included three million families and more than 1
million cancer patients. The scientists found that children whose parents
had good survival rates after being diagnosed with breast, lung, prostate
or colorectal cancer had better survival rates for those same cancers than
people whose parents died within 10 years of being diagnosed with those
cancers.

The increased risk of death for children whose parents had died earlier
was 75 percent for breast cancer, 107 percent for prostate cancer, 44
percent for colorectal cancer, and 39 percent for lung cancer.

“In conclusion, our findings provide support for the hypothesis that
cancer-specific survival of a patient can be predicted from previous
parental survival from cancer at the same site,” the study authors wrote.
“Consequently, molecular studies that highlight the genetic determinants
of inherited survival in cancers are needed. In a clinical setting,
information on poor survival in a family might be vital in accurately
predicting tumor progression in the newly diagnosed individual.”

—–

Massachusetts Will Offer Overdose Treatment
Kits to Heroin Addicts

Starting next month, heroin addicts in Massachusetts will be offered
kits to help treat overdoses quickly, safely and without fear of
addiction, the Associated Press reported. The state plan was
inspired by similar programs in Boston, Chicago and New York City.

In 2005, heroin and other opiates killed 544 people in Massachusetts,
more than double the number of people killed by firearms.

Each kit contains two doses of Narcan (generic name: naloxone), which
can be squirted into the nose of someone who has overdosed. Experts say
the drug causes no side effects, the AP reported. The initial test
run in Massachusetts is expected to enroll 450 heroin users and cost less
than $50,000. If it saves lives, the program may be expanded.

Advocates say this is a safe, effective approach for preventing
overdose deaths. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
doesn&39;s and Jeno&39;s and Jeno&39;s Wellston,
Ohio plant and distributed across the United States, the Associated
Press reported.

Between July 20 and Oct. 10, there were 21 cases of E. Coli
0157:H7 reported in Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. Of the 21
people who became ill, nine said they&39;s or Jeno&39;s Food Safety and
Inspection Service said in a news release.

Included in the recall are Totino&39;s Crisp &39;s Advisory Committee on
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, didn't propose a new standard but is
“emphasizing that all levels are important,” primary author Dr. Helen
Binns, of New treatment for erectile dysfunction University, told the Associated Press.

Children with blood lead levels below 10 micrograms per deciliter may
not show any obvious symptoms but may still have impaired intellectual
development, she said.

In their report, Binns and her colleagues advise doctors on how to
speak to parents of children with lower blood lead levels, including
mention of the risks, and nutrition changes and measures to prevent
additional lead exposure, the AP reported.

The paper was published in the November issue of the journal
Pediatrics. Its release coincides with growing concern over high
lead levels in imported toys.

—–

Read more on Health Highlights: Nov. 3, 2007 site

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 15 (HealthDay News) — Drug company spending on
direct-to-consumer advertising continues to skyrocket, even as criticisms
against it have soared.

Calling for a moratorium, rather than just restrictions, on such
advertising might be in order, say the authors of a study in the Aug. 16
issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

“Direct-to-consumer advertising spending is increasing in terms of its
share of total marketing budget, but it&39;s been 10 years since the FDA clarified its policy with respect to
broadcast advertising and unleashed direct-to-consumer advertising on
television, which was new,” Donohue said. “We wanted to see, in the wake
of the Vioxx withdrawal and an increased focus on the safety of drugs and
a focus on drug costs in light of the implementation of the new Medicare
drug benefit, what industry and the FDA were doing with respect to
advertising.”

For this analysis, Donohue and her colleagues looked at citrate generic sildenafil viagra
company spending on direct-to-consumer advertising and promotion to
physicians over the past decade.

Total pharmaceutical industry spending on promotion soared from $11.4
billion in 1996 to almost $30 billion in 2005. During that time, spending
on direct-to-consumer advertising increased by 330 percent, yet this type
of advertising only made up 14 percent of total promotional
expenditures.

These mass-media advertising blitzes generally start before a drug&39;detailing&39;s monitoring of drug
advertising has not kept pace with the volume of advertising of
prescription drugs. The number of warning letters going out to drug
companies has decreased markedly [from 142 in 1997 to 21 in 2006], and the
number of FDA staff responsible for ads was relatively flat in recent
years, in spite of spending increases.”

It may be that the rules themselves are sufficient, but that
enforcement powers are not.

“My view is that the advertising regulations that are on the book now
are adequate. Prescription drug ads are among the most heavily regulated
advertisements if you look at all other consumer products,” Donohue said.
“But the enforcement of the regulations needs to be there as well, and
resources necessary for reviewing advertisements need to be adequate.”

“And drug manufacturers do not have to have FDA approval of
advertisements before airing them, so an ad campaign can run its course
before the FDA is able to review the ads,” she added.

In response to the study, Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), said in a
statement: “DTC advertising has been shown to play a key role in educating
and empowering patients, improving patient understanding of disease and
available treatments, and fostering strong relationships between patients
and their health-care providers. Unfortunately, the study published today
in the New England Journal of Medicine all but overlooks these
important contributions to patient health.”

“Surveys show that DTC advertising brings patients into their doctors&39;s more on the impact of direct-to-consumer advertising at the Kaiser
Family Foundation.