funpics

A chance discovery a decade ago led to happy men all over the world. But two years after the official launch in India, **** continues to battle local variants that offer the same benefits at a fraction of the cost, due to a glitch in the patent process.

Some of the world’s most amazing scientific inventions or rather discoveries seem to have come about through happenstance. Sir Alexander Fleming chanced upon penicillin while studying Staphylococcus. Similarly, Constantin Fahlberg, a chemist working on coal tar derivates produced the world’s first artificial sweetener – saccharin (accidentally of course). And then there’s the legendary tale of how a drug, initially engineered to combat angina became the saviour of men across the world, woe struck by an altogether different ailment – erectile dysfunction. Sildenafil citrate, commonly known as **** - the wonder cure disguised as a little blue pill, which became a part of pop culture lexicon, acknowledged by the likes of rap star Eminem and football legend Pele, and also a cause of heartburn for millions of netizens buckling under the weight of **** spam mails, celebrates its tenth birthday this year.

Never in the history of mankind has a drug gained the sort of instant recall value that **** has. And there are good reasons for this too. According to the spokesperson from Pfizer, "Erectile dysfunction affects approximately 50 per cent of men over the age of 40 in varying degrees of severity." So it seems only inevitable that a panacea to this ailment would be picked off the shelves like hot cakes.

The Pfizer spokesperson says, "Since the year 1998, it is estimated that over 1.8 billion **** pills have been dispensed to more than 35 million men in more than 120 countries around the world. And today, **** is known to be the most prescribed oral treatment for erectile dysfunction."

However, with respect to India, it’s just been a little over two years since **** was officially launched in the local markets. **** arrived in India in December 2005 and was priced at a hefty Rs 463 for a 50 mg tablet and Rs 594 for a 100 mg tablet. Of course, that hasn’t prevented variants like Penagra and Caverta (which also contain the chemical Sildenafil citrate and are prescribed as drugs to treat erectile dysfunction) to establish grounds in India. Priced at a fraction of what the real **** costs, these drugs comprise a big portion of what makes the market for ED drugs in India. According to sales audit data released by IMSP, the market for erectile dysfunction drugs in India as of Feb 2008 stands at Rs 134.04 crores (recorded over a 12-month period). The figure is a potent reminder of the size of the market for such drugs in India. But despite Pfizer’s almost complete control over the patent of ****, a clause in the Intellectual Property Rights Act allowed companies to independently manufacture the drug in India, albeit with a slight modification.

A highly placed source in the pharmaceutical industry explains this saying, "Until the year 2005, India followed a process patent and not a product patent. As this was the case, companies other than Pfizer found this as window of opportunity to launch their products in India." So are the variants anywhere as good as the real thing? Dr D. Narayana Reddy, an eminent sexologist says, "The variants of **** can serve the same purpose as **** does. However, with regards to the chemical Sildenafil citrate, some patients are known to complain of blurred or blue tinted vision and side effects of other kinds."

Dr Reddy says, "One of the biggest achievements of this drug is that it brought sex out of the bedrooms and into the living rooms. Before ****, people had the opinion that sexual medicine was an unnecessary luxury. Thanks to the unprecedented media publicity given to the drug, even the medical fraternity was shaken out of its slumber and sexual disorders were recognised as a valid and important issue to be addressed and worked upon." He adds, "In fact, **** happened to be the one reason why pharmaceutical companies started pumping money for researching sexual problems."

However, the arrival of cheaper alternatives has also spawned a growth of spurious manufacturers who tried to cash in on the **** name.

The Internet is overloaded with ads for everything from herbal Viagras to traditional oriental alternatives that are priced at almost a tenth of the real ****. Erectile dysfunction drugs fall under the category of Schedule H drugs, which means that you need to have a doctor’s prescription to buy them.

But nowadays, anybody can walk into a drugstore and get even such medicines without a prescription. A spokesperson from the pharmaceutical industry says, "The manufacturers themselves govern the demand and supply for these drugs in many cases. For instance, when a certain Indian alternative to **** was launched in 2003, the pharmaceutical company offered its retailers unbelievably high amounts of cash discounts in order to stock excess quantities of the same, thereby creating a surplus of their product in the market."

**** in motion

* In February last year, doctors in England used **** to save the life of a premature baby, which was all of 24 weeks old and weighed 780 gram. Owing to the failure of one of its lungs, the baby wasn’t able to get enough oxygen in his bloodstream. But upon being administered the drug, the tiny blood vessels in its lungs opened up, which allowed oxygen to be pumped into all parts of his body.

* **** is known to be an antidote for rare pulmonary hypertension (PH), which can lead to chronic high blood pressure. A two-year old child in England named Oliver Sherwood is administered with a dosage of **** on a daily basis – just so that he can stay alive. Although the drug is expensive, his mother remarks that it’s actually the cheapest way to treat PH.


Top Internet **** Jokes

What do **** and Disney World have in common?
A one-hour wait for a two-minute ride.

What is the difference between your first honeymoon and your second?
The first: Niagara; the second: ****.

Did you hear about the first death from an overdose of ****?
A man took twelve pills and his wife died.