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 VIAGRA
IS ABOUT TO GET SOME serious rivals. NexMed Inc., a pharmaceutical
house in Robbinsville, N.J., is developing a topical cream, Alprox-TD,
that represents a new approach to treatment.
Because it is applied locally, Alprox-TD avoids the side
effects that trouble some Viagra users, including blue-tinted vision
and headaches. And it gets around drug-to-drug interactions of the
sort that have harmed some Viagra users who take nitroglycerin for
heart conditions. One other advantage: NexMed's
cream appears to act in minutes, not hours.
The main ingredient in NexMed's cream is not new. It is
alprostadil, an off-patent drug that has been used in the past as an
injectable treatment for ED. NexMed has reformulated the medicine so
that it can be absorbed through the skin. Earlier this month, the
company started a pivotal clinical trial with Alprox-TD among 2,500
men at 80 medical centers in the U.S. NexMed's vice-president for R
& D, Dr. James L. Yeager, says the company plans to wrap up the
trial later this year and submit its results to the Food & Drug
Administration by 2003.
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