#1 The Female Viagra that's Nothing Like Viagra

Our top story looks at Flibanserin or Addyi, the new sexual dysfunction drug approved for women by the FDA. NPR’s On the Media did a great piece on the marketing machine behind this new pink pill.

When a pharma company helps form a non-profit peddling a message of feminism in order to sell a pill that hasn’t been proven effective, it’s imperative the message be corrected. But, as you’ll hear in this piece, the media missed the mark and widely reported inaccurate statistics provided by the group, Equal The Score, the non-profit with links to Sprout Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Addyi.

This story is about a marketing campaign. Tapping into the energy of the equality movement, the corporation was able to manipulate public opinion into believing this FDA rejected this drug’s application for approval twice, because of sexism. The FDA claimed it needed more date. The Equal the Score folks peddled stats like 26 drugs had been approved for erectile disfunction, while zero had been approved for women. In fact, on the FDA web site, one finds there are actually only five drugs approved for men to take for sexual disfunction.

With a call-to-arms strategy Sprout was able to threaten the FDA, some say once the sexism charges gained momentum the FDA caved under pressure from congress, the public and the media.

We’re all for drugs that help women in the bedroom, but we’re not in favor of using sexism as a reason to approve a drug not properly tested on it’s subjects, nor is it cool that that a non-profit, hiding under the guise of feminism is helping a pharmaceutical company make a billion dollars off a pill that plays on women’s insecurities, doesn’t that seem like the opposite of feminism?

The FDA asked Sprout Pharmacutical for more information on the drugs efficacy and how it interacts with alcohol. The drug, which was sold for $1 billion the day after the FDA approval has not been able to show conclusively how it works. Though the marketing campaign has convinced Americans that it is the counterpart to Viagra, a sexual disfunction drug for me, there are some big difference:

Viagra is taken before sex, Addyi is taken daily
Viagra works by increasing blood flow to the penis, Addyi supposiby increases dopemine levels in the female brain
Concerns about interactions between alcohol and Addyi are unknown, since participants in the study threw up and were unable to complete the trial, so the drug company completed the trial using male participants.

Last week, Flibanserin — or “Addyi” — became the first FDA-approved drug aimed at treating sexual dysfunction in women, quickly picking up the nickname: “the female Viagra.” But that’s not quite right. And though it’s been marketed as a long overdue triumph for sexual equality, there are plenty of skeptics. Seeking to understand the nebulous world of prescription drugs and female desire.

http://www.onthemedia.org/story/little-pink-pill/

Even the Score’s ad: