Wyeth-Ayerst, a division of American Home Products, was forced to pull Duract from the market. But because of the faulty FDA approval process and sloppy drug company trials, there are other medicines on the market that are just now entering their Phase IV "trials." Viagra, the penis pill, has been so popular that it's been prescribed to almost 2 million men since it was released in March 2000. Within three weeks of its release, Pfizer admitted to the FDA that about a dozen men had died while taking Viagra, but the company attributed the deaths to other health problems.

In May, the press reported an estimated 24 deaths from Viagra. Now, according to Public Citizen Health Research Group, the death count is 31, with 174 men reporting severe side effects. Furthermore, the rate of off-label prescribing is particularly high with this drug, which is commonly perceived as a "life-style enhancer." In reality, Viagra is a pill being used to treat the side effects of many other drugs. Anti-depressants and blood pressure medications are notorious for causing male impotence; adjusting the levels of those medications may eliminate the problems.

More ominously, impotence is an early sign of untreated heart trouble in older men. Prescribing Viagra to those men is unconscionable, given that diet, exercise, and lowering stress levels would have a greater long-term, overall health effect for these men than a pill that gives an instant short cut to an erection.

Information gathered from:http://www.ainfos.ca/