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Drugmaker Bayer AG said on December 7
its latest tests show up to 85% of men treated with its anti-impotence
pill had improved erections, results that match or exceed
previous studies of Pfizer Inc.'s blockbuster Viagra treatment.
Earlier second-stage trials of the pill,
dubbed vardenafil, showed it improved erectile function in
up to 80% of men, regardless of age, cause or severity of
impairment. Pfizer has said Viagra improves erections
for up to 82% of men.
The first data from Phase III, or late-stage,
trials of the Bayer treatment involved 736 men over age 18
with mild to severe impotence. Germany's Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline
Plc., Europe's biggest drugmaker, plan to jointly market the
pill worldwide by autumn of next year, except in Japan.
Bayer
expects annual sales of the treatment eventually to approach
$900 million.
Vardenafil would challenge Pfizer's Viagra,
which captured headlines worldwide in 1998 by becoming the
first pill to treat impotence and went on to rack up global
sales in 2000 of more than $1.3 billion.
The Bayer drug may also have to compete
with another anti-impotence pill called Cialis, developed
by Indianapolis drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. and ICOS Corp.,
which has been awaiting US Food and Drug Administration approval
since June and could therefore beat vardenafil to drugstores.
Annual
meeting of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America in
Charleston, South Carolina December 7, 2001
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