Viagra in the pharmacies by September?

By Athena Karsera

THE MALE impotence wonder drug Viagra could be available in pharmacies in Cyprus by September, if a licensing application is approved.

A spokesman for the state pharmaceutical service told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that his service had received an application 15 days ago for a license to import the drug.

Vasilis Kouvevides explained that all pharmaceutical products had to go through extensive content, quality and safety testing by the service before they could be approved for the market.

The application to import Viagra has been made by Geo Pavlides and Araouzos, the licensed representatives of Pfizer, the American pharmaceutical company that produces the drug.

Kouvevides said the pharmaceutical service had not yet completed its examinations of the drug. The service was expected to reach a decision based on its testing at its next meeting, he said.

If the application is accepted, Viagra should be available directly after the meeting, by September or October this year.

The recommended price can also only be announced once the application is accepted.

A representative at Geo Pavlides and Araouzos yesterday confirmed that the company had applied for a license to import Viagra and hoped for the green light by the Autumn.

Until then, potential buyers will have to bide their time or go abroad for the drug. Kouvevides said his service had no reason to believe the drug was circulating on the black market in Cyprus: “Only a very small number of people have brought in Viagra from overseas. It is for their own personal use only and was obtained under a doctor’s prescription.”

Viagra was a sensation as soon as it hit the market in the United States in April, capturing media attention as the world’s first oral therapy for the condition formally known as male erectile dysfunction.

It is forecast to achieve record-breaking global sales of $1 billion in its first year.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.