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Two New Impotence Drugs to Compete With Viagra
Reported by Carolyn Clifford
Web produced by Kelly Reynolds

Move over Viagra. Men will soon be able to try two new drugs for impotence. At stake is a lot of money. Viagra sales totaled one and a half billion dollars last year.

Nine little blue pills are given out around the world. But even with it's great popularity, Viagra doesn't have great timing. It loses it's punch after about four hours.
Now, two drugs promise a longer lasting sexual-pick-me-up.

One challenger is Cialis by Eli Lilly & Icos Corporation. The other competitor, Levitra, was developed by Bayer and Glaxo-Smithkline.
while Viagra takes a half-hour to start working, Cialis takes 16 minutes and Levitra 15. Viagra keeps working for four hours. Cialis lasts 36 hours, and Levitra last 5. And Levitra's claim to fame is that it works the first time.

Dr. Dana Ohl, a urologist at the University of Michigan, took part in the Viagra trials. He believes these new options may work wonders on men with certain medical conditions.

"The data on Levitra suggests it has better success rate than Viagra for diabetic and protectomy patients," said Dr. Ohl.

And that's great news for one Michigan man, who wanted to stay anonymous. He became impotent with the slow onset of diabetes. Like a lot of men, he's tried everything from Viagra to painful injections to boost his sexual performance. Both brought only moderate success.

"If I'm going to do anything it'll be an implant," he said.

But he says that implant may be put on the back burner if Levitra lives up to it's hype.

Another man, also anonymous, got fed up with Viagra because it didn't work, so he took part in the levitra studies.

"It worked, no headaches and after an hour or so I had an erection," he said.

Thirty million men in the U.S. have sexual dysfunction but only 10 percent seek treatment.
So analyists predict there will be enough customers for the competitors, while still leaving Viagra with a profitable piece of the action.

And here's a new development, the sex pill battle has moved to court. A few weeks ago, Pfizer sued the other companies claiming they infringed on their patent. There's no word on whether this will delay next year's expected launch of the new drugs.

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