Viagra rival to offer quicker response

By Keith Perry

health reporter

An impotence pill that claims to work twice as fast as Viagra is about to be launched in New Zealand.

Vasomax, a triangular white tablet, does not cause the visual disturbances reported by some Viagra users and is safe for men who take nitrates for heart conditions, says its American manufacturer, Schering-Plough.

It also takes only half an hour to work, compared with an hour for Viagra, because it dissolves in the stomach more quickly.

The company is confident that the Ministry of Health will award it a licence to market the drug in New Zealand and has already lodged an application to sell it in Australia and Britain.

A spokesman for Vasomax, Dr Paul Quartey, said the drug should outsell Viagra because of the advantages it offered patients with heart disease.

"It's a good drug which will offer benefits to many people. In Mexico it is doing very well.

"Men say it improves orgasm and their partners report greater satisfaction," he said.

Men who had heart disease would benefit from Vasomax, and it offered doctors a choice.

"About 40 per cent of men aged 40 have some episodes of erectile dysfunction and 80 per cent of 80-year-olds," said Dr Quartey.

"The number of men to be treated out there is huge and if they were all treated, this would be a billion-dollar seller."

The price of Vasomax is expected to be close to that of Viagra, which sells for $61 for a course of four 100mg tablets, or $47 for four 25mg or 50mg tablets.

Both drugs act on the blood vessels in the muscle of the penis but each tackles impotence in a different way.

Vasomax contains the chemical phentolamine mesylate, an alpha-blocker which overrides the nerves that prevent the erectile tissue becoming engorged with blood.

Viagra contains sildenafil, which targets an enzyme that regulates blood flow to the penis.

Pfizer, the manufacturer of Viagra, warns patients not to take it with nitrates (drugs used to dilate arteries in patients suffering chest pain) as it may cause severely lowered blood pressure or a fatal heart attack.

Six people have died in the United States from taking Viagra.

Schering-Plough is applying to the Food and Drugs Administration to sell Vasomax in the United States.

Neither company has conducted a clinical trial to compare the two drugs, although this is likely once they are both on sale.

Jill Holland, divisional manager for Lincoln Pharmaceuticals, which markets Viagra in New Zealand, said last night that the company was not unduly worried about the arrival of competition.

"Vasomax works differently to Viagra and is not a new drug," she said.

"Viagra was developed specifically to tackle erectile dysfunction and has been selling extremely well so we are not too concerned about Vasomax."

Jill Holland said Viagra's side-effect of interfering with people's ability to distinguish between blue and green only affected a tiny proportion of users and was temporary.