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T A B L E+T A L K
Have you ever not voted in a presidential election? Share your reasons why in the Politics area of Table Talk

D A I L Y+Q U O T E
Anti-abortion turnips

R E C E N T L Y
The smearing of Judge Woods
By Joe Conason, Gene Lyons and Murray Waas
How newspaper articles of questionable origin were used by Kenneth Starr to remove a federal jurist in a Whitewater case
(04/22/98)
Salon Exclusive: Starr deputy met with Scaife private investigator
By Murray Waas
Whitewater prosecutor Hickman Ewing did not fully report on meetings with anti-Clinton operative
(04/20/98)
Salon editorial
By David Talbot
The far right's desperate counterattack
(04/17/98)
Starr strikes back
By Jonathan Broder and Murray Waas
Defiantly, the independent counsel bids farewell to Malibu while holding tight to his investigation of the president
(04/17/98)
Scaife investigator targeted CNN reporter
By Murray Waas
Private details about TV correspondent's life ended up in House Committee files
(04/17/98)
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__________a real growth stock
Newsreal Image VIAGRA MAY GIVE YOU THE PERFECT PENIS -- BUT BEWARE, THERE MAY BE PROBLEMS IN GETTING WHAT YOU WISH FOR.

BY DAVID FRIEDMAN | Erections are a growth industry. In 1996, American men spent $25 million on drugs designed to transform middle-aged torpor into teenage turgor. That's a significant sum considering the only medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration had to be injected in the penis with a needle. In 1997, after the feds OK'd a plastic plunger delivering the same drug sans syringe, the market surged to $200 million. If you include non-pharmaceutical therapies such as vacuum pumps and surgical implants, the number expands to $700 million. That's a lot of hard cash, yet more -- a lot more -- is coming.
On March 27, the FDA approved Viagra, a little blue pill that, according to its manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., has created a forest of wood in up to 80 percent of the 4,000 impotent men tested in their clinical trials. The sound of trees rising is beautiful music to stock analysts, no doubt thinking of the 30 million American men who are said to have erectile dysfunction. And as baby boomers age, that number will soar. Like teeth, penises weren't designed to last 80 years.
Thus, predicts David Saks of Gruntal & Co., Viagra will be the most profitable drug ever -- and early reports show he's probably right. In the week ending April 10, nearly 40,000 prescriptions were written at a retail price of about $10 a pill. One Net-savvy physician, Michael Thomas of Milwaukee, was selling Viagra scrips on his Web page at $50 per "consultation," until criticism forced him to require in-person office visits. Even without the Internet, Pfizer could gross $4 billion yearly from the drug. One thing is certain: Wall Street has placed its bet. In the past year Pfizer's stock -- now selling at an all-time high -- has more than doubled. On Thursday, the company is expected to announce a two-for-one stock split.
The man behind that growth is Dr. Ian Osterloh, a diffident Englishman with narrow shoulders, a receding chin and a complexion the color of typing paper. When we met, not long before Pfizer submitted Viagra for approval, he was sipping tea and waiting to take the podium at a medical conference. The discovery of Viagra, he said, is a tale of the unexpected.
"We were experimenting at our research center in Sandwich [England] with treatments for hypertension and angina. We thought a phosphodiesterase inhibitor [which Viagra is] might be effective." Viagra surprised Osterloh and his fellow researchers twice: It didn't lower blood pressure but it did raise erections. A follow-up study caused even more excitement -- first among the research subjects, then Pfizer, now investors.
Viagra is poised to dominate the impotence market much the way Prozac and similar pills have taken over the treatment of depression. But unlike Prozac, Viagra has a huge potential for black-market sales. At one testing site, a burglar stole a shipment of pills. Osterloh blames (guess who?) the media.
"This is not a 'superstud drug,'" he said. "It is a serious medication for a serious disease. It is not intended for healthy, functioning men." But sensational news coverage, he complained, has given the false impression that Viagra is for "regular guys" who want "a little extra performance."
"That," Osterloh said, "is what you get in your motorcar after it has been properly serviced."
Osterloh was annoyed when I asked if he'd taken the drug himself. "Certainly not," he said. But the history of impotence research is filled with men who've experimented on themselves. An unforgettable example occurred at the 1983 meeting of the American Urological Association in Las Vegas. There, British physician Giles Brindley demonstrated beyond charts and graphs that a drug he'd been experimenting with was effective. He did this by stepping in front of the podium and dropping his trousers. Moments earlier, Brindley had injected himself. So there it was, standing proud before a room full of strangers: the, uh, "evidence." Farther down the Strip, Siegfried and Roy were making a white Bengal tiger disappear, and two circus aerialists -- one sitting on the other's shoulders -- were traversing a tightrope without a net. But even in Vegas they'd never seen a show like this.
Within weeks, doctors were prescribing injections, even though the medication was not FDA-approved for that purpose until two years later.
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N E X T+P A G E+| The problem isn't in your head

T A B L E+T A L K Have you ever not voted in a presidential election? Share your reasons why in the Politics area of Table Talk D A I L Y+Q U O T E Anti-abortion turnips R E C E N T L Y The smearing of Judge Woods By Joe Conason, Gene Lyons and Murray Waas How newspaper articles of questionable origin were used by Kenneth Starr to remove a federal jurist in a Whitewater case (04/22/98) Salon Exclusive: Starr deputy met with Scaife private investigator By Murray Waas Whitewater prosecutor Hickman Ewing did not fully report on meetings with anti-Clinton operative (04/20/98) Salon editorial By David Talbot The far right's desperate counterattack (04/17/98) Starr strikes back By Jonathan Broder and Murray Waas Defiantly, the independent counsel bids farewell to Malibu while holding tight to his investigation of the president (04/17/98) Scaife investigator targeted CNN reporter By Murray Waas Private details about TV correspondent's life ended up in House Committee files (04/17/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		__________a real growth stock VIAGRA MAY GIVE YOU THE PERFECT PENIS -- BUT BEWARE, THERE MAY BE PROBLEMS IN GETTING WHAT YOU WISH FOR. BY DAVID FRIEDMAN \| Erections are a growth industry. In 1996, American men spent $25 million on drugs designed to transform middle-aged torpor into teenage turgor. That's a significant sum considering the only medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration had to be injected in the penis with a needle. In 1997, after the feds OK'd a plastic plunger delivering the same drug sans syringe, the market surged to $200 million. If you include non-pharmaceutical therapies such as vacuum pumps and surgical implants, the number expands to $700 million. That's a lot of hard cash, yet more -- a lot more -- is coming. On March 27, the FDA approved Viagra, a little blue pill that, according to its manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., has created a forest of wood in up to 80 percent of the 4,000 impotent men tested in their clinical trials. The sound of trees rising is beautiful music to stock analysts, no doubt thinking of the 30 million American men who are said to have erectile dysfunction. And as baby boomers age, that number will soar. Like teeth, penises weren't designed to last 80 years. Thus, predicts David Saks of Gruntal & Co., Viagra will be the most profitable drug ever -- and early reports show he's probably right. In the week ending April 10, nearly 40,000 prescriptions were written at a retail price of about $10 a pill. One Net-savvy physician, Michael Thomas of Milwaukee, was selling Viagra scrips on his Web page at $50 per "consultation," until criticism forced him to require in-person office visits. Even without the Internet, Pfizer could gross $4 billion yearly from the drug. One thing is certain: Wall Street has placed its bet. In the past year Pfizer's stock -- now selling at an all-time high -- has more than doubled. On Thursday, the company is expected to announce a two-for-one stock split. The man behind that growth is Dr. Ian Osterloh, a diffident Englishman with narrow shoulders, a receding chin and a complexion the color of typing paper. When we met, not long before Pfizer submitted Viagra for approval, he was sipping tea and waiting to take the podium at a medical conference. The discovery of Viagra, he said, is a tale of the unexpected. "We were experimenting at our research center in Sandwich [England] with treatments for hypertension and angina. We thought a phosphodiesterase inhibitor [which Viagra is] might be effective." Viagra surprised Osterloh and his fellow researchers twice: It didn't lower blood pressure but it did raise erections. A follow-up study caused even more excitement -- first among the research subjects, then Pfizer, now investors. Viagra is poised to dominate the impotence market much the way Prozac and similar pills have taken over the treatment of depression. But unlike Prozac, Viagra has a huge potential for black-market sales. At one testing site, a burglar stole a shipment of pills. Osterloh blames (guess who?) the media. "This is not a 'superstud drug,'" he said. "It is a serious medication for a serious disease. It is not intended for healthy, functioning men." But sensational news coverage, he complained, has given the false impression that Viagra is for "regular guys" who want "a little extra performance." "That," Osterloh said, "is what you get in your motorcar after it has been properly serviced." Osterloh was annoyed when I asked if he'd taken the drug himself. "Certainly not," he said. But the history of impotence research is filled with men who've experimented on themselves. An unforgettable example occurred at the 1983 meeting of the American Urological Association in Las Vegas. There, British physician Giles Brindley demonstrated beyond charts and graphs that a drug he'd been experimenting with was effective. He did this by stepping in front of the podium and dropping his trousers. Moments earlier, Brindley had injected himself. So there it was, standing proud before a room full of strangers: the, uh, "evidence." Farther down the Strip, Siegfried and Roy were making a white Bengal tiger disappear, and two circus aerialists -- one sitting on the other's shoulders -- were traversing a tightrope without a net. But even in Vegas they'd never seen a show like this. Within weeks, doctors were prescribing injections, even though the medication was not FDA-approved for that purpose until two years later. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - N E X T+P A G E+\| The problem isn't in your head