“Viagra for Women” – a drug that is supposed to increase libido in premenopausal women – has failed to live up to expectations.
As reported by the AP, the German company Boehringer Ingelheim , the developer of the drug flibanserin , published the results of two trials of the new drug. The documents indicate that sex did indeed increase in pleasure for the study participants, but the effect was not as powerful as expected.
On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will hold a meeting with experts to assess the benefits and safety of flibanserin. Boehringer Ingelheim may face challenges with both. The FDA stated that the company's internal studies do not confirm that the drug achieves its primary goal of increasing female libido, regardless of whether the patient is sexually active.
The FDA also notes the new drug's long list of side effects, including depression, dizziness, and fainting.
Experts are also not optimistic that even flibanserin's creators don't know its exact mechanism of action. The drug is known to be related to antidepressants: it also affects the production of serotonin, a hormone and neurotransmitter responsible for brain processes.
“We don't know exactly how the drug works, but we believe it affects chemicals in the brain that are associated with responses to sexual stimuli,” explained Peter Piliero, director of the US division of Boehringer Ingelheim .
The development of drugs designed to address women's sexual problems began shortly after the phenomenal success of Viagra, which was released in 1998. Analysts estimate that the market for “female Viagra” could reach approximately $2 billion. By comparison, last year, the manufacturers of Viagra and its generics earned $4.4 billion.
According to sociological studies, 40% of women suffer from various sexual dysfunctions. Boehringer Ingelheim believes their drug could help one in ten patients.
However, to date, none of the medications designed to improve women's sex lives have achieved the desired effect. Experts believe this is because the female sexual arousal mechanism is more complex than that of men. “Treating female sexual dysfunction is quite a complex area. In men, it all boils down to solving a purely mechanical problem. Women don't have this problem, so sometimes it's even difficult to understand why a woman doesn't enjoy sex,” Elizabeth Cavailler, a urologist at a New York clinic, told the AP .
Andrey KOSHMAN