July 10, 2000 — In the two years since it rocketed onto the market — and
became, almost overnight, a household word — the impotence drug Viagra has
helped men with erection problems enjoy satisfying sex. The little blue pill
fired the male imagination with the notion of an enduring and youthful virility
that could last into the golden years.

But truth is, Viagra is not the sexual cure-all that many men who have
problems with erectile dysfunction believed it to be. As many as two in five
men who try the drug don’t get the desired results. And at least 39 Viagra
users have died, mostly men who were also taking other drugs, or who had
serious heart disease (see the November-December 1998 issue of Clinical
Therapeutics).

No wonder that early reports of another, perhaps better, drug were so
dysfunction pills
— both to the media and to men who got no satisfaction from
Viagra. The very name of the new drug — Uprima — conjured up images of
supremacy and conquest.

Then, last week, came the news that threw a splash of cold water on these
oh-so-fond hopes: TAP Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Uprima, unexpectedly –
perhaps pills
— withdrew its cialis generic lowest price viagra
for approval by the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA).

Why did the company pull a product that just weeks ago had been widely
expected to gain FDA approval and give Viagra a run for its money in the
billion-dollar impotence market? Experts speculate that the agency may, in
fact, have been poised to reject the drug’s application or to severely restrict
its dysfunction erectile pill
use. The reason: serious questions about the drug’s safety at
higher doses and its efficacy at lower ones.

Before submitting its application to the drug agency, TAP Pharmaceuticals
tested Uprima on more than 2,700 men in final clinical trials. The experience
of two of those men, cialis vs viagra
by WebMD, offers a glimpse at the drug’s
possibilities — and drawbacks.