Can a new pill restore sexual desire, or are drug marketers the only ones who will get excited?

Update: An FDA panel Friday rejected the latest pill trying to gain approval as the female version of Viagra. The FDA panel of health experts found the side effects outweighed any benefits.


RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—The wonder pink pill that was supposed to do for women what Viagra has done for men…well…"It doesn't work," says Diana Zuckerman, PhD, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families, an organization focusing on using science-based findings for more effective health policies.

On Friday, the German drug company intent on selling the antidepressant flibanserin as a way to help women improve their sex drive will try to persuade the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve the drug for female sexual dysfunction, although two industry-funded studies did not show a significant increase in sexual desire in women taking the drug. "The greatest benefit of these drugs would be to the company making money from these pills, not the women taking them," Zuckerman says.

THE DETAILS: The FDA Reproductive Health Advisory Committee meets today with the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim to discuss the approval of flibanserin for use in women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder. However, critics say this drug is more about lining the pockets of pharmaceutical companies than helping women. Among other complaints, Zuckerman says, is the fact that flibanserin affects seratonin similar to the way selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, antidepressants do. "We know those drugs have substantial risks," she says, adding, "The drug is intended for women of childbearing age, who already are cautioned by the FDA to avoid seratonergic drugs like this one during pregnancy and while breastfeeding." The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' Committee on Obstetric Practice explicitly recommends that paroxetine (Paxil, an SSRI) be avoided by pregnant women and women planning to become pregnant. "We expect a similar risk for this drug, but it hasn't been adequately studied," says Zuckerman.

The two studies on flibanserin's affect on female libido did not show a significant increase in sex drive, although some women did report having more satisfying sexual experiences. (Drug approval is based on increasing libido, not having better sex.) To make matters worse, women taking flibanserin withdrew early from the U.S. trial because of side effects.