Viagra ranks among the world’s most familiar drug names and is synonymous with male sexual potency. It was among the first lifestyle drugs and subjects of direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads and medical condition awareness campaigns. In the process, it shined a light on impotence—long an unspoken, highly confidential medical condition.
Sidenafil (Viagra) was initially tested in the 1980s as a drug intended to treat high blood pressure and to promote blood flow to the heart muscle in angina. In clinical trials, however, its effect on angina was unimpressive, but an unanticipated side effect in comments by test subjects revealed a far more interesting and profitable possibility: Sidenafil produced erections, even in men who struggled with impotence. In 1998, Viagra became the first orally active drug approved in the United States for treating impotence, readily displacing the previous practice of drug injections into the penis. Viagra was highly effective (benefit in 70–80 percent of men), simple to take, and relatively safe. Within three years, Viagra had received regulatory approval in more than 110 countries and was being taken by 45 million men.
The traditional definition of impotence (now rebranded erectile dysfunction, or ED) was altered from the “persistent inability to initiate or maintain an erection” to the far more subjective “inability to sustain an erection suitable for satisfactory sexual performance.” Pfizer launched DTC ads publicizing ED and Viagra—ads that featured former U.S. senator and 1996 presidential hopeful Bob Dole and the internationally acclaimed soccer superstar Pele. These efforts paid off handsomely: Viagra annual sales rapidly exceeded $1 billion.
Viagra was soon sharing the market with Cialis (vardenafil) and Levitra (tadenafil), which act faster and considerably longer. These drugs all act by a common and rather complex mechanism, causing the involuntary muscle in the penis to relax and increasing blood flow in blood vessels. To work, the male must first be sexually aroused—by whatever means. In the absence of such stimulation, the drugs fail to work. The search for a female Viagra have been unsuccessful to date, perhaps because of the especially complex nature of female desire, but hope is not yet lost.
SEE ALSO Mandrake (c. 200 BCE), Direct-to-Consumer Ads (1997), Female Viagra (2015).
The Kiss by Auguste Rodin is located near the Orangerie Museum in Paris. Since its introduction, Viagra has made satisfactory sexual relations possible for individuals with erectile dysfunction, but its benefits have not gone unnoticed by non-ED-afflicted males aspiring to achieve new romantic heights.