Viagra may help stroke patients

Viagra can work in as quickly as 30 minutes and works for at least 4 hours. Viagra works by improving a man's response to sexual stimulation, increases blood flow to the penis, and allows him to lead a normal sex life. As with most prescription medications, Viagra may produce the following side effects: headache, flushing, stomach upset, nasal stuffiness.

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March 2007 »

Viagra may help stroke patients
March 4, 2007

Can Viagra help stroke patients the way it has improved the lives of millions of American men?

Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit is studying whether Viagra improves recovery in people with moderate symptoms from stroke within seven days or less.

Ford got federal approval two years ago to use the little blue pill for an early, experimental study in people who have had a moderate ischemic stroke -- one caused by a blockage, the most common kind.

Finding new uses for a drug are important to patients and pharmaceutical firms, particularly as companies look for ways to offset losses for profitable drugs like Viagra as they lose patent protection. Pfizer's Viagra is expected to go generic in the next few years, unless the company wins longer patent protection.

Pfizer gained federal approval in 2005 to sell Viagra, repackaged and renamed as Revatio, in a white, 20-milligram pill to treat pulmonary hypertension, a lung disorder in children and adults. Prescribed three times a day, Revatio costs $10,271 a year, or about $33.49 a day -- costs exceeding those paid for by insurers or men taking Viagra for erectile dysfunction.

Source: Sun-sentinel