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New Drug May Treat Sexual Dysfunction

Aired August 06, 2002 - 14:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: There may be competition for Viagra. A new drug that does a lot more than treat sexual dysfunction in men and in women is being tested here in the U.S.
Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen now joins us to explain what it is and how it works -- Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, this drug has probably the strangest genesis of any drug I heard of. Some researchers a few years back at the University of Arizona came up with a drug called Melanotan which was supposed to help you get a tan without exposure to the sun -- hence the name Melanotan.

So they gave a group of men this drug, and they waited to see if the pigment in their skin changed. Yes, it did; they got tan. But something else happened. They also got spontaneous erections, which they definitely did not anticipate happening.

I hear some giggling behind me.

So what they decided to do is they sold the rights to this drug to another company and they said see what you can do with it. So the company took it, they altered it, so it's really no longer really Melanotan; it is something called PT141. They didn't want these men to get spontaneous erections; they only wanted them to get erections where they were in a situation where they had sexual stimulation.

So let's take a look at the results of the tests so far. This is actually brand new; they have not even really announced these results yet. They just told us this recently. They turned it into a nasal spray. first of all. Twenty-four impotent men took the drug; 75 percent achieved erections. So again, these were men who were impotent -- 75 percent achieved erections. And they achieved them pretty much within half an hour of taking the drug.

Let's talk about a couple things here. Viagra really has nothing to worry about. These results, first of all, only 24 men -- that is a very, very small sample. Viagra is thousands upon thousands of men. Also, the results are pretty similar to what Viagra is. Also, the concern among some of the experts who we talked to is that this would only work for men with mild impotence, that men who had impotence that had been for over a long period of time or was really severe that this drug might not work for them.

So the conclusion here is that this might be -- might -- that's a big "might" -- another weapon in the arsenal against impotence and there are several other drugs that are also in the pipeline. This one, PT141, as you mentioned, Kyra, they are also trying it out on women. .

PHILLIPS: All right, Elizabeth.

What is the main difference between this and Viagra? Get a little more technical for us.

COHEN: OK, I'll get technical on you. What Viagra does basically is Viagra increases blood flow to the genitals, which is why it gives men erections. What that does instead is it works on sort of the sexual appetite area of your brain. So one works on blood flow and one works on the central nervous system. So one of the hopes here is that since they do work in different ways, maybe they would for some men for whom Viagra doesn't work, maybe that would work and visa versa.

PHILLIPS: Elizabeth, you said you heard giggling in the newsroom, but you know what, they will be first ones to buy the pills, won't they?

COHEN: Probably. I would imagine.

But I wanted to mention, Kyra, also that this drug, PT141, that they're developing now, that's not going to work to get you tan. The researchers said we don't want one drug to do both. Somebody else is working on a version of this that will get you tan. This pill is just for sexual dysfunction. It won't get you skinny, it won't get you tan; it will just get you sexually aroused.

PHILLIPS: I guess which can't be a bad thing.

Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

COHEN: Thank you, Kyra.

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