J&J Has Competition in Race for New Blockbuster Sex Pill
Johnson & Johnson has a competitor for Priligy, its anti-premature ejaculation pill, the LA Times reports:
Dr. Michael G. Wyllie and his colleagues at Plethora Solutions Ltd. in London have developed an anesthetic spray called PSD502, or Tempe. A combination of lidocaine and prilocaine, it is absorbed only by the glans penis…
Time to orgasm increased a mean of 6.3 times in the men using the spray, compared with a 1.7-fold increase in men using the placebo.
BNET previously noted J&J’s increasing interest in sex-related treatments back in February. J&J, via Janssen Korea, filed for approval for Priligy in Korea last week. It could be available there in Q3 or Q4. The JoonAng Daily reports:
Currently, it’s available in only Finland, Sweden, Austria, Portugal and Germany. It has not been approved in the United States.
[with Priligy] ejaculation time increased from an average of 62 seconds to four minutes for 30 milligrams of Priligy, and to 4.5 minutes for 60 milligrams.
… Side effects included drowsiness, insomnia and nausea.
Priligy has been rejected by the FDA in the U.S. in part because it’s actually an antidepressant (dapoxetine) with a short active life, and its effect on sex was originally noted as a side effect.
The JoonAng Daily also reports this priceless piece of information about the development of international standard for PE:
Although there is no standard to define the time of premature ejaculation, the third International Consultation on Sexual Medicine will likely set it at one minute.
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Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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