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Pfizer's Viagra Increasingly Used Recreationally, Study Says
Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc.'s impotence pill Viagra is being used increasingly by younger men and perhaps for recreational purposes, according to a study carried out by Express Scripts Inc., a prescription drug-benefit manager.
Prescriptions for Viagra grew fastest between 1998 and 2002 among men who were younger than 55 years old, with the annual number of prescriptions more than tripling for under-46-year-olds, according to the study. The percentage of Viagra users with an underlying medical condition decreased over the same period.
The findings, which appear today in the International Journal of Impotence Research, suggest that more men without impotence may be using Viagra, researchers said. Viagra costs about $9 a pill, according to the Web site of Drugstore.com Inc., and had 2003 sales of $1.88 billion.
``We hear a lot about drug costs increasing,'' said Tom Delate, a researcher who led the Express Scripts study. ``This may be considered a lifestyle drug by some people, and it's very expensive.''
To control costs and make sure that potential patients actually need medication, Delate suggested limiting the number of pills that may be reimbursed or requiring that doctors diagnose an underlying condition. Viagra and other impotence medicines continue to be important options for men with medically diagnosed impotence, he said.
Delate worked for Express Scripts while he was carrying out the study, and he now works for Kaiser Permanente in Denver.
5 Million
Researchers analyzed information from prescriptions that were filled by 5 million people between 1998 and 2002. They monitored Viagra use and also tracked patients' other medicines.
Men over 56 remain Viagra's most frequent users, according to the study. Overall, about 1.4 percent of the study's 5 million insurees used Viagra in 2002, an 84 percent increase from the 0.8 percent who used the drug in 1998, the study found.
Researchers didn't have access to patients' medical records for the study. They instead looked at prescriptions for other medicines, such as diabetes or prostate cancer drugs, as indicators of underlying medical conditions associated with impotence. The researchers considered patients taking none of those medicines as potentially recreational users of Viagra.
Some men with impotence don't take those medicines, though, and that fact, along with the small number of study participants under 30, may have exaggerated results, according to Pfizer spokesman Daniel Watts.
``Limitations in the study design also limit the conclusions that can be drawn,'' Watts said. ``We know from actual prescription data that men between 40 and 69 account for 84 percent of Viagra prescriptions.''
Age 53
Medical records might offer more details, Watts said. According to Pfizer data, only 8 percent of men who use Viagra are between 34 and 40. About 26 percent are between the ages of 40 and 49, and 36 percent are between 50 and 59. The average Viagra user is 53, he said.
``By far, the majority of men who go into the doctor's office and seek impotence treatment are there because they are, for some reason, dissatisfied with their erections -- and therefore probably have some level of erectile dysfunction that needed treatment,'' Watts said.
The researchers found that 162,490 prescriptions were dispensed to 48,164 patients during the study. Use among women declined by 58 percent.
Researchers originally thought the medicine might work for women, and some doctors prescribed the drug to female patients even though that use wasn't approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer dropped those research efforts in February after results from studies were unconvincing.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Kristin Reed in San Francisco at
Or at kreed@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Robert Simison in Washington at rsimison@bloomberg.net.
source :-http://quote.bloomberg.com | 
