JEDDAH, 18 July 2007 — Saudi doctors say that Viagra, responsible for several thousand births each year across the Kingdom, may also have wider medical applications.
With a population exceeding 22 million and a very high birth rate, the Kingdom is benefiting from Viagra’s potency,” Dr. Hamza El Sisi, consultant urologist and head of urology department at Madinah’s King Fahd Hospital told Arab News.
Dr. Sherif Ghazi, professor of andrology at Jeddah-based Dr. Samir Abbas Fertility Center, said the drug might be of significant medical use beyond the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Prescribing Viagra to the older husbands of women treated for infertility provides an increased probability of conception, as the drug encourages an increased frequency of marital intercourse during the treatment period, thus reducing the need for artificial insemination,” he said.
The drug is also reported to have been used by women to help them conceive because it improves blood flow to the womb. So, evidence is emerging that it is helping childless couples,” Dr. Ghazi added.
The drug, now in its eighth year of use and claimed to be the leading erectile dysfunction medicine in the Kingdom, according to independent IMS research, is already indicated for use in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension. Centers around the Kingdom are using Viagra to save patients’ lives, especially children suffering from pulmonary hypertension. Others use it to climb mountains or diminish the negative effects of long-distance, ‘jet-lag’ travel.
Safety and effectiveness are the two major reasons for Viagra’s market lead in the Kingdom and the reason why so many men use it,” said Dr. Ali Mustafa, professor of clinical pharmacology at King Saud University. “In the era of evidence-based medicine, the drug has a superlative history of clinical superiority. It is easily the most exhaustively-studied and extensively-prescribed drug for ED therapy,” he said.
A Pfizer executive said that Viagra had been approved for use in men with erectile dysfunction by regulatory administrations in over 120 countries worldwide. “More than 27 million men worldwide have been prescribed the drug, with over 1.5 billion pills prescribed — an average of more than six tablets a second,” he added.