By Andrew Adamides
IT’S V-Day for Cyprus, after the Pharmaceutical Council announced last night that sex wonder drug Viagra has been approved for sale.
After boning up on the facts and testing samples, the council has agreed that the blue pills, which thousands worldwide have credited with revitalising their sex-lives, will be available from next month.
Speaking after the announcement, Achilleas Patzinachos, Director General of the Health Ministry, said that the decision had been urged by the success of the drug in the United States and Europe, and by the fact that it was already circulating illegally in Cyprus.
Viagra has already been licensed for sale in the occupied north, and there have been reports of black market viagra being smuggled in through the mixed buffer zone village of Pyla.
Our Viagra will be imported from Greece, where the drug is already on sale. It will only be sold on prescription, and the ministry is organising a campaign to warn would-be users of the side-effects.
At a later stage, a plan to distribute the drug free to the hard-up is to be discussed, allaying fears that those in need would be seen as a soft touch vulnerable to sky high prices.
Viagra has become a veritable pop-culture phenomenon since its appearance on the market last year. Originally tested as a heart drug by pharmaceutical giants Pfizer, it was decided that it would be more profitable to market the pills as an impotence-killer after their sexual side-effects were noted during trials. Dosages come in three sizes, 100 milligrams, 50 milligrams and 25 milligrams. Celebrity users include singer Julio Iglesias and top crimper Vidal Sassoon.
No price has yet been fixed for the drug in Cyprus.
Speaking on CyBC TV yesterday, andrologist and neurologist Costas Papacharalambous said that after all the mythical aphrodisiacs offered over the years, Viagra’s effectiveness was a hard fact, with users able to expect a success rate of approximately 80 per cent.
He added that although he hadn’t tried it himself, several of his patients had, and had reported that it was successful.
Asked who the primary users would be, Papacharalambous stressed that Viagra would not be available as a recreational drug, but only on prescription and that it would be given to men of any age suffering from impotence, including those rendered impotent by drugs taken for diabetes or psychological conditions.
So far, he continued, it had been suggested that only urologists should be allowed to prescribe Viagra, but cardiologists were also keen to get in on the act.
Those unable to take Viagra would include people taking medicines containing nitrates, as both this and Viagra work on the heart, Papacharalambous said.
He added, however, that although side effects – including dizziness and blurred vision – have been reported, the drug could be taken safely by most. He said that the deaths which had occurred amongst men who had taken Viagra could have been caused by a number of factors, pointing out that sex puts great strain on the body and that deaths had been known to occur after sex that hadn’t been aided by chemical means.
Pfizer say Viagra should not be taken more than once a day, and that the tablet’s effect lasts for up to six hours, but Papacharalambous also stressed that in order for the flesh to be willing, the mind also had to be willing, and that if the user didn’t actually want to rise to the occasion, all the Viagra in the world would do no good.
