Boehringer Sex Pill May Not Aid Women, FDA Staff Say

[Joanne98]

Source: Bloomberg

June 16 (Bloomberg) -- Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH’s sexual desire drug flibanserin may not be effective or safe, according to U.S. regulators weighing whether to approve the first pill designed to boost women’s libidos.

The drug “failed to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement” in sexual desire, Food and Drug Administration staff said in a review released today. It was also linked to appendicitis, depression and loss of consciousness. Side effects led about 15 percent of women to stop treatment with the drug, the review said.

While male sexual enhancement treatments led by Pfizer Inc.’s Viagra facilitate erections by increasing blood flow to the penis, flibanserin is designed to work in the brain. Boehringer’s libido pill, first tested as an antidepressant, lowers the level of one brain chemical, serotonin, and boosts production of two others, dopamine and norepinephrin.

“The evidence that I’d seen about flibanserin did not seem to suggest that it was very effective,” Kim Wallen, a professor of psychology and behavioral neuro-endocrinology at Emory University in Atlanta, said today in an interview. “This isn’t a good way to start an FDA hearing on approval of a drug.”


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=abvH1_Clki5I

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THANK GAWD! We're spared from endless female Viagra commerials!

[PassingFair]

1. Oh, I don't know...it sounds like it worked perfectly....

"appendicitis, depression and loss of consciousness".... describes the sex I've been having lately.

:hide:

[sam sarrha]

2. it figures.. did the porn industry develop that diabolical drug... ??

[MilesColtrane]

3. Once they put a home cooked meal, complete with cleaning the kitchen...

afterward, and a foot rub, in a pill, then they'll have something that may pique feminine desire.

[arikara]

4. LOL... You hit the nail on the head

but forget the pill in that case, it wouldn't be necessary.

[MilesColtrane]

5. Yeah, but that means that us guys would actually have to DO that stuff.

[arikara]

6. But if you fellas did it

odds are you'd get lucky...

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. A pill that increases sexual desire in women?

What does it do? Make men do the dishes?