Viagra...for kids!
Oh yes, you read that right.
Now, I must confess...Viagra isn't being marketed to kids for the usual use...Big Pharma hasn't gone THAT far off the deep end.
But how could I resist a subject line like that?
The truth is, yes, Viagra is being reviewed by the FDA for use in children. Kids who suffer from a rare lung disorder called pulmonary arterial hypertension (which strikes 600 kids a year) might find relief from the little blue pill.
The disorder causes high blood pressure in arteries in the lungs. This makes the right side of the heart work harder than it should and causes chest pain, dizziness, and fatigue.
Of course, Pfizer is changing the name of the drug (but why take away all of the fun of being able to tell all of your school chums you're taking Viagra?!).
This new incarnation, re-branded as Revatio, is being reviewed by the FDA for use in children.
Now with all of the concern over Viagra's side effects in adults, hearing loss being the most recent ("Who needs hearing in the bedroom, anyway?"), I have to say I'm kind of baffled over the thought of giving it to children.
But the FDA isn't just reviewing the new drug -- they asked Pfizer to develop it!
In return for doing as the FDA has asked Pfizer will get a six-month extension of their patent on Viagra.
Oh...wait...I see what they did there.
The patent on Viagra is up in 2012, and you can bet other companies have their eyes on the $1.89 billion it raked in over 2009. An extra six months might not sound like a lot of time...but you're talking almost a billion dollars there.
Now, the FDA made this request back in 2001. But why would Pfizer care then? Six hundred kids a year doesn't add up to much money. But now...with 2012 and expiration looming, it's suddenly a worthwhile cause.
So, I guess this is how patent expiration really works. The FDA helps you scramble to find some rare, awful disease that your drug might be able to treat. You get to look like a hero, bringing a cure to hopeless families. And that cha-ching you hear in the distance? Oh, that's nothing.
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Christine O'Brien writes the e-letter Health eTips for Dr. Wright's Nutrition and Healing.
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Comments
Steve
Maybe they just need a natural diet, and the BEETROOT from the other article to lower the blood pressure. Probably better for the kids in the first place!
Steve
Anonymous
I, too, have PAH, and Revatio has b een a godsend. I am much improved. Revatio comes in a small white tablet with 20 mg of sildenafil citrate in each tablet. I take it 3X a day. Revatio causes venous dilation, just like Viagra, especially in the lungs. I am female and aged 70.
anns
I understand the "gameplaying" involved in patent protection and I do not support that.
However, I am disappointed in your flippant attitude towards the use of Viagra/Revatio in pulmonary hypertension. I am an adult with pulmonary hypertension. The use of Viagra has me allowed to return to work and discontinue disability. It has helped young children that I have met lead an active life.
Pulmonary hypertension is a devastating disease. It used to routinely be fatal within two years of diagnosis but new drugs, like Viagra, are allowing us to lead near normal lives. I am used to your column being supportive of patients but this last entry seemed too insensitive to those of us dealing with a serious disease. I have seen the children with pulmonary hypertension and it causes more than "chest pain, dizziness, and fatigue" In some children, it causes DEATH. The side effects of Viagra are a small price to pay to avoid that.
Jesse L.
I have to agree with aans. I have a friend that was diagnosed with PPHwhen he was 9. It's an awful thing, now at the age of 25 he can barely walk 100 feet. He is now being evaluated for a lung transplant. For awhile he was getting viagara samples and the helped his lungs a lot. He had more energy and breathed much better. Also fyi last I knew they already use revatio in the UK and thekids are far better off for it. It's a complicated disease because it's not 'high blood pressure', it high blood pressure only in the lungs. You can't treat it as if it were just high blood pressure, if it were really that simple don't you think someone would have figured that out by now?
Tully
My sympathy to those who suffer this distressing condition. It would be interesting to know how it arises, and whether the condition is increasing in the population.
I think the point in the article is the obvious and ugly compact between Pharma and Government. In other words, what happens to those persons who have a condition that does not attract a big enough 'ching-ching'? Viagra is one of the biggest blockbuster drugs of all time - at what point has a corporation made enough money from human suffering, or does that never happen? Probably not, and THAT is the tragedy here.
Your suffering has been purchased with a billion dollars, just to change a name and a colour. Without the purchase you would be left to die.
Anonymous
If by chance this medication will help people with this kind of disorder, I am not being insensitive but I am always leery when it comes to Big-Pharma and our government, now, have they ever thought for an alternative as for natural treatments? Of course not, I am very sure there is something simple in our natural environment that will equal and surpass this type of medication and in the long run without side effects compared to prescription drugs, I hope for the first time this medication will actually help and continue helping these people, but as some professionals will agree that certain vitamin will help with MVP I am just hopping they will also come up with an alternative for this type of ailment, all I am saying is do we got a choice?, we should always have two choices at least. JAM
Lori
Deficiency of vitamin D3 as well as magnesium is implicated in any respiratory disorder. Before prescribing meds for any disorder, isn't it in the best interest of the patient to look at nutrient status?? I know, I know, profits supercede common sense...
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