Issue No.590
Home news
Previous issue
Site map
|
|
13 - 19 June 2002 Issue No.590 Home news |
Current issue Previous issue Site map | |
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Ready for Viagra
No one really knows why it took the Ministry of Health so long to decide, but local production of Viagra is finally at hand, reports Fatemah Farag
After holding back for four years, the Ministry of Health has finally announced that it will license Viagra in Egypt. "Well it's about time," exclaimed a one-would-have-thought-too-young-to- be-concerned male friend when the news broke. His sentiments, however, are a mirror image of that of a nation; the banners of local newspapers and magazines have been booming: "Finally, Viagra in Egypt" and "Viagra wins!! The pills of marital happiness will hit the Egyptian market," all possibly explained by the banner, "One million Viagra pills are needed by Egyptians every month."
Viagra is the diamond-shaped little blue pill that promises big results. According to one popular definition available on the Internet, it is the drug that "treats impotence by helping you have an erection." And when Pfizer, Viagra's producing company, released the drug in the US in March 1998, it literally became the most popular medication to hit the American market. Black markets spread across the globe from Taipei to the winding alleyways of Cairo gaining the pill its then pet name: 'The billion dollar drug'. After all this is a drug that offers to replace gel suppositories, the injection of drugs directly into the base of the male organ, vacuum pumps and penile implants as solutions to "erectile dysfunction".
A Qasr Al-Aini Teaching Hospital study conducted a few years ago indicated that between 25 to 30 per cent of married men in Egypt suffer from impotence, ie an approximate 2.5 million potential Viagra buyers, while an independent study found Viagra and private lessons for schoolchildren to be the two greatest expenses of the Egyptian family; the former costing the average family between LE170 to LE300 per month.
And yet, abstinence has been the order of the day. In May 1998, the Ministry of Health informed Al-Ahram Weekly that "Our decision is that the drug will remain illegal until we have had the opportunity to undertake the necessary studies into its properties and side effects." According to Egyptian law, all imported medications must first be approved by the Ministry of Health, which fixes the price of drugs and regulates their distribution through the Egyptian Company for Medication.
Since then, the side effects have become known to everyone: headache for 30 per cent of those who take the pill, hazy eye sight for three per cent, upset stomach 10 per cent and it is contra indicated for those who use certain heart medications. And yet the government has continued to refuse to approve Pfizer Egypt and 16 other local companies' requests to produce a local blue pill, and the importation of the drug from abroad has remained illegal. Another 'justification' given was population explosion and the need to adhere to a public policy that discourages too many children.
And so, the real reason behind the reluctance to legalise the drug remains something of a mystery; a mystery that opened the doors to rumours of a deal that would keep the drug banned until 2005 when the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) would be fully implemented in the sector of pharmaceutical production.
Viagra is not just about boosting male sexual potency, it is about big business. Already, the share prices of both Pfizer Egypt and the Egyptian International Pharmaceutical Industries Company have been on the rise since the announcement was made by the Ministry of Health late last month. But it still remains unclear as to when the first license for production and distribution will be issued. According to reports by major pharmaceutical companies competing to manufacture the drug locally, the Egyptian market promises an initial LE1 billion annually.
Market demand for Viagra in Egypt has long been ensured by a vibrant nationwide black market. Reports of smuggling have been frequent and Viagra tops the Customs Authority's list of smuggled commodities. Official estimates put the value of smuggled Viagra into Egypt annually at LE1.2 billion.
The amounts confiscated at Cairo International Airport alone have to date been stored at the authority's warehouse -- a collection that is now estimated to be worth LE30 million. And, only just prior to the ministry's announcement, customs officers at Cairo International Airport foiled an attempt by a businessman to smuggle 750,000 pills valued at LE7.5 million.
The pill would cost a mere LE3 if produced locally, but the black market has pushed the price up to LE60.
Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama summed up the situation of Viagra in Egypt when he argued: "Those who want to understand the manifestation of corruption, and the crimes committed against public moneys, will need to review the five-year-long story of the licensing and local production of Viagra during which the doors to smuggling and illegal trade were opened wide. And it seemed as if the state was either ignorant or complicit."
But , according to the latest decree, this is a chapter in Viagra's history that is soon to be closed. Dr Ahmed Ibrahim, chairman of the board of the Nile Pharmaceutical Company, has said: "We are completely ready to produce a cheaper, more potent Viagra with less side-effects starting tomorrow."
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
