Ten-years ago, on March 27,1998 to be precise, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved of Viagra, the blue pill that gave a new lease of life to men with erectile dysfunction.
There has been no looking back since then as Viagra went on to become part of “popular culture” and raked in millions for Pfizer, the company that introduced it.In the first month of its release Viagra was prescribed 500,000 times.
An estimated 30 million men have been prescribed the drug so far and statistics show that millions more have taken it without a prescription.
Other companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer came up with Levitra and El Lilly while ICOS came up with Cialis.
None of these drugs have come close to even match the record sale of Viagra, leave alone beating it.
According to health experts normal people should not take the drug just for sexual pleasure.
Also people who are already on nitrates, the drugs prescribed to lower the blood pressure, should not take Viagra because there are chances of their blood pressure dropping drastically.
Viagra is known to trigger side effects like headaches, facial flushing, stomach disorder, bluish vision, blurred vision and sometimes sensitivity to light.
According to statistics provided by Pfizer, an average of about three Viagra tablets were dispensed each second between its launch and the end of last year.
The drug was tested in over 120 clinical trials involving more than 16,000 men.
Viagra was also tested in roughly 3,000 women as a potential treatment for sexual arousal disorders. These trials were "inconclusive," and in 2004, Pfizer announced that it had stopped them.
Source-Medindia
THK/L
