Lifestyle drugs are medicines that treat conditions attached with lifestyle like weight loss tablets, anti-smoking agents, impotence therapies and hair restorers. According to one statistic, companies have invested over $20 billion in research into such drugs since the 1990s and are expected to increase that amount in the coming years.
Because impotence is normally termed as an annoyance rather than a real threat to health, the drugs (in this case Viagra) that treat it are frequently called "lifestyle drugs, though potential new applications could give these compounds lifesaving medical roles in near future.
Viagra and Lifestyle
Everyone is talking about Viagra these days. TV shows are interviewing ecstatic customers while newspapers and magazines are analyzing its cultural implications. The internet is spreading information on how to get it, bars and cocktail parties are buzzing with jokes about it. Viagra is more than just a blockbuster drug that treats a widespread sexual ailment, it demonstrates a whole new type of drug that will have bearing on the lifestyle of millions.
Vast Appeal of Viagra for Mens Health
Viagra is a godsend for men with clinically diagnosed impotence. It is similar to weight loss drugs can be a prominent health boon for the seriously obese. The pivotal factor behind the vast appeal of such drugs is their ability to improve the lives of people with less than severe symptoms. Interestingly, many in the Viagra target audience are sexually potent men who are interested in increasing sexual performance.
Engine of Growth
The new lifestyle drugs could turn the pharmaceutical industry into an engine of growth. Global spending on pharmaceuticals is running at about $300 billion annually. At a time when people lay out $25 to $30 a month on cable television, it seems a distinct possibility that they will be willing to pay as much for a lifestyle drug. Such spending could increase the range of the drug industry in new few years, sending ripple effects through the whole economy.
Competitors
Pfizer's competitors are working overtime to improve on Viagra. The drug started its popularity as a potential angina treatment that, but it also suppressed an important enzyme, giving rise to a firm, sustained erection. The main challenge for competitors of Viagra is to develop medicines that do not produce the side effects of Viagra, which include headache and a blue haze in the patient's vision.
The speedy entrance of competing drugs highlights the fact that technology is helping the pharmaceutical industry. Not so long ago, making of new drug would take around 15 years but at present one can make a new drug in the matter of few years.
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