Know some curiosities involving Viagra

Medication was launched 20 years ago

Launched 20 years ago in the United States, Viagra has become a huge success and an unexpected source of income for the American Pfizer laboratory, as well as for counterfeiters worldwide.

Following the curiosities about the revolutionary pill:

Fruit of chance -

In the early 1990s, scientists at the Pfizer laboratory were researching a new drug against angina, sildenafil citrate. The tests revealed the substance's inefficiency to reduce pain caused by this disease.

But among men the remedy had an unexpected effect: an erection. And many volunteers reported a better sex life.

Pfizer has reoriented research into male impotence, a condition that affects one-third of men over the age of 40. The treatment of erectile dysfunction was at the time the poor cousin of modern pharmacopoeia, with proposals that were neither practical nor efficient, such as mini-suppositories for the urethra and injections into the penis.

The FDA approved the new drug on March 27, 1998. The product began to be sold under the name Viagra in early April in the United States.

- Blazing success -

The success of the blue pill was immediate: in the first two weeks of marketing 150,000 prescriptions were registered in the United States.

Viagra has become a worldwide success before being even authorized outside of the United States. Contraband sales were in countries such as Israel, Poland and Saudi Arabia in mid-1998, with prices three to five times higher than those charged in the United States (about $ 10).

Shortly after the official launch in Europe in September 1998, the pill against impotence quickly became a financial locomotive for Pfizer.

Worldwide sales of Viagra shot up more than 30 percent in 1999 and 2000, quickly surpassing one billion dollars a year. A surprise for the pharmaceutical group that had initially forecast sales of $ 100 million a year.

- Smuggling on all sides -

Advertising campaigns by a former Republican candidate for the White House (Bob Dole in 1999) and soccer king Pelé (in 2002), among other celebrities, have made known a drug that the scientists say is beginning to take effect, 27 minutes after ingestion.

Smuggling is in motion: fake pills manufactured in Thailand or India were sold online a few weeks after the start of marketing.

The counterfeiters realized that Viagra was a gold mine. The drug became the most smuggled drug and customs seizures exploded.

A survey conducted in 2011 by Pfizer showed that 80% of Viagra bought on the internet was contraband. This means it may contain toxic products such as pesticides, plaster or printer ink, warned the American company.

- Misuse -

The misuse or "recreational" of Viagra also advanced rapidly. A British study detected a small but real use among young people in 1999.

In 2012, a US survey showed that 8% of the country's youth were taking Viagra and other "erection facilitators" (Cialis, Levitra) just to ensure sexual performance.

At the same time, scientists have begun to research whether Viagra - generic drugs came to European pharmacies in 2013 and the United States in 2017 - is a doping substance for athletes.

After hesitating for some time, the World Anti-Doping Agency decided not to include the substance in the list of prohibited products: sildenafil citrate would have a doping effect only at high altitude.