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US to okay female Viagra

A panel of the United States' Food and Drug Administration will soon wrestle with a question that has bedeviled poets, philosophers and generations of frustrated men: What do women want?

Updated on: May 25, 2010, 02:33:31 IST
None | By , Washington
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A panel of federal advisers will soon wrestle with a question that has bedeviled poets, philosophers and generations of frustrated men: What do women want?

HT Image
HT Image

That enigma will be part of a Food and Drug Administration committee's deliberations on June 18 when it considers endorsing the first pill designed to do for women what Viagra did for men: boost their sex lives.

A German pharmaceutical giant wants to sell a drug with the unsexy name "flibanserin".

The prospect of the drug's approval has triggered debate over whether the medication represents a long-sought step toward equity for women's health or the latest example of the pharmaceutical industry fabricating a questionable disorder to sell unnecessary drugs.

"Achieving a happy and healthy sex life can be a real and important problem for some women," said Amy Allina of the National Women's Health Network.

"But we have lots of questions about the pink Viagra."

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