The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval for flibanserin could happen as early as this week. Flibanserin, easier to remember as the "female Viagra", became a controversial drug because it was said to enhance libido in women. This drug, that could help millions of women who are in distress under hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), was developed by Sprout Pharmaceuticals, according to Inquisitr. HSDD causes lack of desire or having no sexual fantasies.
American Sexual Health Association spokesman Fred Wyand said, "This would bring another option to the table that doesn't currently exist," since no other similar FDA-approved drug is in the market. "There really are not any medical options available for women who have low sexual desire. There just aren't a lot of choices out there," Wyand added.
The American Sexual Health Association is a group that testified favorably in an FDA hearing for flibanserin, News Max reported.
Opponents of its approval have a number of concerns about the drug which led to its first disapproval in 2010 and another denial in 2013. Although in June, the FDA advisory panel voted 18 to 6 in favor of flibanserin, the decision is still up to the administration itself, reported previously by HNGN.
Two hundred health experts petitioned and sent a letter to the FDA noting it has only a small difference with a placebo and the side effects of the drugs could be harmful to women.
"Approving flibanserin will not only unleash an unsafe drug onto the U.S. market but will send a message to industry that pressuring the FDA through public relations campaigns can get a drug approved," said in the letter, lead-authored by Adriane Fugh-Berman, a Georgetown University Medical Center professor who is also a director of its PharmedOut Program that studies marketing done by the pharmaceutical industry, said in USA Today.
Fugh-Berman said those who support flibanserin "have created this whole fiction about the FDA being sexist for not approving the drug. It's not feminist to want a lower standard of safety for women."
Fifty-one-year-old Amanda Parish from Tennessee said the drug restored her sex life. "I just got friskier again," Parrish said. "I even sent him a pantygram."
Parrish, already in menopause, said "most of us resist aging as much as we can." She elaborated, "Look at the market for eye creams. I'm going to fight aging every way I can."
