Ruthanne Willia...'s  Instablog

A disclaimer to note that VVUS's erectile dysfunction drug avanafil, a fast-acting (they say 20 minutes) PDE5 inhibitor (same class as Viagra and Cialis, but acts faster and may be safe to use with heart medicine nitrates) is moving along.  Phase III results were announced this morning, have met endpoints (per the company) and can be found at the company web site vivus.com.

I won't be following avanafil as closely as the obesity drugs, although it certainly is a very promising candidate.  I don't consider myself the most objective observer.  I understand that from a scientific point of view, we can track "successful" episodes of sexual intercourse where vaginal penetration was "achieved."  Just like I understand that when you're playing golf with men and one of them yells "Fore!" you don't pipe up with, "Oh, don't worry, it didn't go anywhere near them, you're just over by those trees on the right." 

But I would not very much like to find out that I was on the receiving end, as it were, of this clinical trial.  (One would be tempted to try to help:  "Hey, you got it in there!  Good going, honey!")  And if I were to sit down with ten girlfriends for drinks, I might get ten different answers as to what should constitute "success" here.  That's not to knock the importance of men's sexual satisfaction, just to say I respect it enough to say it's WAY beyond the scope of what I'm willing to analyze.