Viagra Ban for Athletes (But Not for Soldiers)?
The New York Times recycled an old story over the weekend about sports authorities considering a ban on the use of Pfizer’s Viagra and Eli Lilly’s Cialis among athletes.
The erectile dysfunction drug is thought to increase bloodflow all over the body, not just you-know-where. The issue first made headlines back in 2006, when the Journal of Applied Physiology published a study showing that under some conditions cyclists who had taken Viagra saw a performance boost of up to 15 percent.
Less well reported is research into giving Viagra to soldiers — including women — who have to perform taxing work at high altitude without the luxury of acclimatizing first. That idea was raised two years ago by researchers at Stanford.
The U.K.’s Mail on Sunday reported back in June that the World Anti-Doping Agency was researching whether to ban Viagra. Said one WADA scientist:
Each time there is a seizure of banned drugs you can be sure that there’s Viagra and Cialis found as well.
Since then basbeball’s Roger Clemens has been discovered using it, and the AP ran a piece on it as well.
Perhaps the real story should be, why is WADA taking so long in making its decision?
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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