- LONDON (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical
firms on Friday rejected claims they had created a new disorder known as
female sexual dysfunction to build a market for Viagra and similar drugs
among women.
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- An article in the British Medical Journal said researchers
with close ties to industry had defined the new disorder at company-sponsored
meetings over the past six years to encourage use of the same medicines
that have helped men with impotence.
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- The result was that female sexual problems were being
wrongly "medicalized" and the number of women affected greatly
exaggerated.
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- The author of the article, Australian Financial Review
journalist Ray Moynihan, said claims that 43 percent of women aged 18-59
had female sexual dysfunction were misleading and potentially dangerous.
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- He traced the origin of the definition of the condition
to a May 1997 meeting of researchers and drug company representatives at
a Cape Cod hotel.
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- But drugmakers said they were simply seeking a treatment
option for millions of women with sexual difficulties equivalent to the
erectile dysfunction that men can face, which is now frequently treated
with Viagra, a $1.5 billion seller for Pfizer Inc.
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