Viagra Pills have Changed the Paradigm of Erectile Dysfunction

Updated on April 30, 2020

A drug originally created for a type of chest pain ended up causing a revolution in the treatment of impotence – which even changed its name later to erectile dysfunction. 

When the drug was approved worldwide after almost a decade of testing, treatment for then impotence was limited to vacuum pumps, penile injections and implants in cases of organic origin or psychotherapy when there was an emotional background.

An oral drug that treated the problem in a less invasive and more discreet way seemed a distant dream for urologists and patients. Who would believe that, with a simple action – blocking the functioning of an enzyme, phosphodiesterase type 5, or PDE5, would come the treatment of the disease that affects about 50% of men over 40 years old?

At first, sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra and initially known as UK-92480 in the files of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer) had to overcome the distrust of doctors to prove what came. Physiologically, erection, its maintenance, sexual desire and pleasure depend on numerous cellular and biochemical mechanisms.

Viagra – as well as drugs of the same class that would come later, such as Cialis and Levitra. Learn more about the comparison of different Viagra pills at Viagrarezept.com. These pills act at first, in a single point of all this complexity, relaxing the internal musculature of the corpora cavernosa and allowing the entry of blood. The benefits, as we know, go far beyond: patients report better quality of orgasm, more sexual desire and personal satisfaction.

RESULTS

One of those responsible for this feat, British chemist, doctor and consultant Ian Osterloh, started working at Pfizer in the mid-1980s, when the UK-92480 was still just a hunch for the treatment of angina, a painful condition caused by the narrowing of the coronary arteries, which supply the heart.

The drug did not even tickle the clearing of these vessels, but some patients in Wales, where tests were conducted, reported an improvement in their erections. No one could understand how a drug, especially one that expands blood vessels, could act on the penis without having much effect on other parts of the body.

He, who joined the team responsible for the clinical studies of Viagra in 1993 and led them from 1994 onwards, saw that the test results only improved. Generally, in drug development, expectations start at the top and then have to be lowered – either because the treatment is not as effective or because it is contraindicated for some patients or because of side effects.

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